A Return to Los Angeles

We left Los Angeles twenty years ago. Not that we really wanted to, but for us educators not making enough to buy even a studio-sized condo in the toughest section of the city, we had a toddler and wanted a real home. In the late 80's, it was a middle class/professional migration out in search of housing. Coming back, it's like returning to a time-warp, only everything that needed fixing back then is worse. Housing prices?! Even with the downturn, we're back to renting a condo.

Having raised our daughter in far more affordable circumstances, we wanted to come back to the city that values creativity -- or does it? We'll be examining that question and what we can do about it in this blog. As an art educator, it's downright dismal. For the city, not tending to creative education has had a detrimental effect. But the business community nationally is starting to sound the alarm. And because of that, I have great hope. It was the business community that rightfully sounded the alarm twenty-five years ago when they were having to spend too much on basic remedial education for workers. The schools responded.

Now the business community is seeing the result of ignoring a key part of education -- teaching students how to think. In the rush to beef up measurable scores -- left-brain subjects as some would say -- the unmeasurable, right-brain subjects were discarded. As fluff. As expendable. As something only for those who could afford to get it on their own, or "deserved" it. All of the arts educators who've been sidelined for a quarter century (since the publication of "Nation at Risk" in 1983) have been screaming about this, along with frustrated parents. Now, finally, the business community is raising its voice. Could it be that we'll be gaining some balance? Soon?