The Stripping of Positive Expression in Schools

 Some of you know that I work with teens. My heart has been broken and eyes opened to the struggles and situations of local youth. Today a young man sat down at a piano and played his heart out. My first instinct was to tell him not to touch the piano. It is in a church that offered their building for our ARTreach 180 program for the summer. Thankfully my team member stepped in and asked the young man if he had asked if he could play. The church representative said YES. I was lost in a moment listening to this young man play. He was absorbed in his playing. Over the last few months I've seen local youth considered at-risk become alive in art projects and drama presentations. Not everyone excels in science or history or math or english. Not everyone has someone at home encouraging them and beside them guiding them. Some kids only have a God given talent of music or art or drama. And that is being taken away from them! The one positive medium they have is being torn from the curriculum! These kids have so much against them, and the one joy they have, the one thing where they can be extraordinary in a place where they usually feel less than ordinary is seen as unimportant. I beg to differ. The cutting of these programs is contributing to a sense of hopelessness and encourages these youth to look at school as having absolutely no purpose since they struggle with the basic academics. Now I ponder on what all of this means for those who are creative and artistically inclined but who encounter so many struggles and obstacles.