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Issue date: June 09, 2000

@vcaphed:First-grader Susanna Huff watches fifth grader Bethany Elliott create a landscape in colors that contrast with those found in nature at the Slater Elementary School campus.

@vcaphed:Fifth-grader Christina D'Elia sculpted a self-portrait in tile during parent-run art classes at Slater Elementary School.

@vcredit:Karen Willemsen

Art for all ages

By Karen Willemsen

First-grader Susanna Huff doesn't know about the latest university research showing that students who are immersed in the arts develop greater confidence, problem-solving skills, and an appreciation for multiple perspectives.

She does know, however, that she loves participating in Slater Elementary School's Arts Focus program. Funded by a $20,000 grant from the Community Foundation of Silicon Valley, the two-year pilot program is proving to be a hit with students, parents, and teachers.

This spring parents became the art teachers for the program's first six-week session. Next year children from kindergarten to fifth grade will get to try three sessions each year. The program was started by eight parent volunteers who found the research about children and the arts persuasive. They launched a comprehensive hands-on arts curriculum at Slater Elementary School, elevating the pursuit of art to the same status as reading and mathematics instruction.

Community School of Music and the Arts, a local nonprofit organization, provides much of the Mountain View School District's visual arts education, but the district has only contracted with the school for a limited number of hours each month.

According to Lance Tagomuri, the principal at Slater School, the instruction from CSMA amounts to seven hours a year for grades one through three and 22 hours for grades for grades four and five; there are no art classes for kindergarten.

The Arts Focus program strives to integrate arts education into Mountain View School District's six optional parent-participation classes.

Parents who choose to enroll their children in the classes must spend a minimum of two hours per week in their child's class, and another half hour contributing to the school community at large. Not all of them draw upon an arts background, but they still help out by tutoring in reading and math and planning field trips.

The volunteer parent instructors from Arts Focus developed a curriculum of projects suitable for children of mixed ages, rather than having students progress through an ever more complex series of classes. The program is attended by students in kindergarten through fifth grade.

Liz Huff, Susanna's mother, also sees the social benefits of the Art Focus program. "The children have become one big happy family doing this. They make friends across all ages, meet new kids. It's really good," Huff said.

The students seem to agree. When asked if older students help the younger ones, fourth-grader Caitlin Bartunek said kids of all ages learn from each other. And Erica Mason, a third-grader who is designing jewelry and bowls from paper she made and colored by hand, said, "Kids need to get more art. My mom talks about art all the time, how important it is. It's good for you."

One morning each week, a group of parent volunteers teach students about the arts. The kids make papier-mÉchÇ puppets, clay tile portraits, wearable paper art, and paint landscapes. First grader Elizabeth Martin works on her "opposite drawing," sketching white and blue flowers against an orange construction paper sky.

Under the guidance of Jane Horton, another Slater parent volunteer, and Kristin Wallace, director of the Peninsula Youth Theater, the children are creating their own theatrical production, writing scenes, and making costumes for the show, which tells the story of some beneath-the-sea creatures.

Based on California's state standards for visual and performing arts instruction, the program's curriculum provides the opportunity for students to learn about the history, science, and techniques that are unique to each medium they work in. The standards encourage basic mastery of self-expression, artistic perception, and the cultural context within which each art form developed. They also encourage students to make interdisciplinary connections to other subjects like science, math, and social awareness.

For example, Stacey Mason, a co-founder of the program who is also a professional artist with a five-year-old at Slater this year, guided students learning to make their own glazed ceramic tiles by teaching them about the cultural significance of tile-making in ancient Greece and Rome. Students also quickly discovered that heat was the key to transforming soft, porous clay into firm tile squares.

"They also didn't know that much of the Earth's surface is clay, and that it regenerates itself. Neither did I, but I learned," said Mason.

After finishing her unit Mason will use the state standards to do a self-evaluation on the project's success. She says that parents in the Art Focus program have devoted countless hours to planning, leading, and evaluating the children's art projects.

"We're saying that art is not a privilege. It teaches you to think in complex ways, and that will benefit our kids," said Kathleen Bransfield, who works as an administrative manager at Stanford University.

Bransfield rearranged her work schedule, carving out time to volunteer at Slater.

"We understand that not all parents can do this, that there are socioeconomic concerns," Bransfield said. "But I think, in the current job market, a lot of employees can ask for flextime, like I did, and that employers will be receptive."

This year, 120 students participated in the Art Focus Program. Their parents will have logged nearly 3,000 volunteer hours by the end of the school year. Next year, these dedicated parents hope to expand the program to include 150 students.

Art Focus Program students exhibition

The public is invited to view the works produced by the students enrolled in the Arts Focus Program Monday, June 12, 6:30-8:30 p.m. at Slater Elementary School. The evening's events will include presentations of student art and the debut of the students' original play at 7:15 p.m. in the multi-purpose room. Slater parents who are interested in enrolling their children in next year's parent-participation classes and the Arts Focus Program are invited to an ice cream social at 6:30 p.m.

For more information, please call 526-3545.