"With the Troup County Commission and the Board of Education in a pinch for funds, it seems there are ways to reduce spending.

Taxpayers should be told how much of the $100 million-plus budget is spent on administration and travel rather than real education.

I am sure there are many expenses that can be and should be slashed, but throwing out scare tactics of closing schools, cutting art and music or four day weeks are not the answer.

Cutting the number of days in class will only put a huge expense increase on the parents. Working parents will have to put their children in day care on Fridays or hire sitters to keep them, thus putting additional costs on parents.

If art and music are cut, parents will face a dozen more fundraising projects, costing us more money. These projects should be outlawed by state legislation. They force students to compete for inexpensive prizes by begging family and friends to purchase overpriced, cheap merchandise."

Board chairman Daves
Nichols also said the
board has tried hard the
last six years to get full
time arts and music
teachers back into the
schools. Cuts in 2003
pushed arts back to parttime
status in the elementary
schools, forcing some
to raise money themselves
to pay for full-time arts
teachers.
Nichols said the board
was on the cusp of reinstating
full-time arts and
music when the recession
took its toll. He also
reminded the group that
the board created West
Side Magnet School as a
fine arts school.
Board member John
Darden said he appreciated
the parents fighting so
hard for their children's
education and he hoped
that whatever happened,
they continued to fight for
their children at whatever
school they are in. He said
he understood the parents
are looking out for their
children's best interests,
but "this board has thousands
of children to worry
about."
"

I took my nine-year-old to see Bela Fleck last night. I was to young to have seen Jimi Hendrix, but I have now seen the best banjo (Bela Fleck) and bass (Victor Wooten) players in the world. I'm glad my daughter was able to experience it. She really enjoyed the whole thing.

For all you musicians out there they did The Twelve Days of Christmas in twelve different keys, and twelve different time signatures!!! Future Man was incredible on the drums. and Jeff Coffin played amazingly. During one of Jeff's sax solos he began switching between two saxophones. This was done in a call and response, which he then topped off by playing both instruments at the same time!!! I do believe that is the saxophone equivelant to playing the guitar with your teeth!

Do yourself a favor and go see Bela Fleck and the Flectones if they come to your area. Take the kids. It is a lengthy show, but the volume level was perfect. It was never too loud for young ears, and we had seats directly behind the sound board.

The following is a quote from an article by Rod Paige and Mike Huckabee and can be found on the Children’s Music Workshop, Music Education Online Web site:

“Research has shown that those who study the arts improve their achievement in other subjects, including mathematics, reading and writing. In math, for example, studies point to a direct connection between music and spatial reasoning and spatial temporal skills, which are important to understanding and using mathematical concepts. For high school students, course-taking data collected by the College Board indicate that students of the arts annually outperform their non-arts peers on the SAT. In 2004, for example, students who studied music scored 40 points higher on the math portion of the test than students reporting no arts coursework. Similarly, students who studied acting and play production outscored their non-arts peers on the verbal portion of the SAT by an average of 66 points.”

For more information, please check out the complete article at the following Web site: http://www.childrensmusicworkshop.com/advocacy/artseducation.html.

Nurture different modes of reasoning.
Teach critical thinking skills
Allow students to engage in creative activities.
Invite active participation.
Teach self-discipline.
Cultivate the imaginative thought process.
Convey meaning.
Evoke emotional growth.
Are powerful tools of communication.
Convey a sense of time and place.
Extend understanding of math, science, and language arts.
Teach respect for the works of man and nature.