How to Keep the Elementary Art Teacher Position

Californians often wonder how the Houston area schools managed to have one - two (yes, count them -- TWO) art teachers at each elementary school. When I tell them I was an elementary art specialist in Texas, it's rather a hard concept to grasp, since art has been out of CA schools for a couple of generations now. Actually, it's a pretty ingenious method. Art, Music, and PE are tied to teacher planning time. And by having all the children in the same grade level go to a specialist at the same time, all the teachers in that grade share a common planning time. Voila - the arts are preserved, valued, and each child enjoys a more rounded education.

Now, a common planning time is exactly what research says teachers need, and what teachers say they want. I've certainly heard all the excuses why this couldn't happen over the years in every district I was in up until we moved to Texas. I have to admit, I bought into it -- that is, until I actually participated in it and saw it work very effectively. It took some leadership and vision on the part of the Texas districts do this. But that's how you save the arts programs. Texas requires far more PE minutes than either California or Washington, so this model ensures that elementary children meet that requirement. Kids rotated through the arts programs -- three days of PE, one of music, and one of art in a week. How much sense does that make?! How much did kids love their specialist time? How much did teachers love that specialist time? They valued that regular planning time each day.

Having a common grade level planning time supported the new teachers on staff, as they had access to their mentors right in the middle of the day. It made scheduling so easy -- none of this crazy jostling of open slots for teachers, which makes for a patchwork quilt kind of day. While it's not so hard on a PE teacher, an art teacher jumping between grades all day long is hard. Setting up and taking down for 5th, then heading to 3rd, then kareening to kindergarten, and then maybe back to a 5th grade lesson can get schizophrenic.

It required four specialists per school in one district's model - two PE, one art, and one music. Another district always had two art and two music specialists, along with the two PE coaches at each school. Some larger schools also put their librarians and computer teachers into the mix, so that class sizes remained small. This ensured that school librarians were also planning and offering instruction in the library, rather than only being a check-in, check-out service. Because we were all held to the same evaluation standards and considered faculty with just as much to contribute, and had our programs funded adequately, the librarians were dynamite. PE programs were creative and exciting, music was outstanding, and art was integrated into the regular curriculum as much as possible. And none of these excellent schools were middle class schools. These were in the toughest, most at-risk neighborhoods. But you couldn't tell from the quality of the work on the walls, or the abundant supplies in the cupboards.

What a difference a lively elementary arts program made in the lives of kids who would have had none of it in their experience. I heard school administrators say on more than one occasion that the parents would have a meltdown if they tried to cut out the elementary arts programs. There was a firm commitment, even in tough economic times. So it can certainly be done. If I'd never taught it, I wouldn't have thought it possible. But I'm telling you, it is.

Wouldn't it be great to sit down with any west coast, supposedly progressive school administrator, using these existing models, and explore the ways those Texas districts did it? Texas gives less money per pupil than California does. Oh, and was there ever a competitive spirit among all those schools to produce top programs. There was nothing wishy washy about them at all. We were expected to be good -- and help our students to be excellent, regardless of their economic situation at home. And they were/are!