SOFA

On August 26th, Education Minister Dave Hancock took time out of his busy schedule to meet with four members of the SOFA committee.  Also present at the meeting was Christine Bouchard from Alberta Education, and Sean Yam who is the Minister’s Executive Assistant.

During the one hour meeting, a wide variety of items were discussed, including Mr. Hancock’s Inspiring Education strategy, the importance of fine arts education, and the use of ‘locally developed courses’ by School Boards to supplement core subjects.

It was very apparent during the discussion Mr. Hancock is quite supportive of fine arts education.  His goal is to create the opportunity for as many students as possible to take fine arts courses.  He intends to have the curriculum re-designed to allow for both a ‘rigourous’ and ‘exploratory’ option.  His desire to offer exploratory courses is so that all students will have the opportunity to benefit from taking a fine arts course, even though they may not have taken any earlier in their schooling.  However, he also stated it will be up to each local community working in conjunction with their principal to determine what kind of fine arts programming is offered.  Parental and community involvement will be critically important in this process.  He does not intend to take a ‘one size fits all’ approach in regard to fine arts programming throughout Alberta.

SOFA is pleased to hear that Mr. Hancock is supportive of expanding fine arts education.  However, we remain concerned over the availability of specialized educators in Alberta to support the type of programming indicated above.

During the meeting, Mr. Hancock agreed to respond to our questions in writing with the understanding that his response will be forwarded via email to those who have registered on our website.  This will be sent out as soon as a response is received.

SOFA members also asked Mr. Hancock if he would be willing to attend a public SOFA meeting in Calgary to discuss how fine arts fits into the new Inspiring Education stratgegy.   He indicated he was definitely willing to do so, provided the meeting is held in late fall when he will have more flexibility in his schedule.  We will post the date of this meeting on our website once it has been determined.

At the end of our meeting, Mr. Hancock was presented with a “Save Our Fine Arts” T-shirt and agreed to have a picture taken with SOFA members inside the Alberta Legislature.  Pictured below with Mr. Hancock (center) from left to right is Bill Campbell (parent and human resource professional), Murray Ord (parent and motion picture/television industry executive), Lyle Bennett (parent and Director of Sales for a well known chain of music stores), and Sam Gregory (grade 12 student and aspiring future politician).

It is interesting to note that Mr. Hancock has a particular interest in education, including the fine arts.  His wife is currently a high school principal, his son is a teacher, and his daughter is a recent graduate of the Victoria School of Fine Arts in Edmonton.   We can only guess this results in some lively discussion at home.

SOFA sincerely wishes to thank Mr. Hancock, Christine Bouchard, and Sean Yam for taking time out of their busy schedules to meet with us.

Are you on Twitter?  If so, join in on the conversation regarding “Save Our Fine Arts”. 

To participate, you will need to use the hashtag: #sofab

Please include this in any of your tweets so that others can follow the conversation and join in. 

When sending out tweets, we suggest you to include some or all of the hashtags listed below so that anyone following the conversations will learn about ”Save Our Fine Arts”:

• #ableg - conversations involving the Alberta Government (this is one of the most followed conversations in Canada)
• #inspiringed - conversations involving the Alberta Government’s Inspiring Education Strategy
• #abed – conversations involving Alberta Education
• #yyc - conversations to do with Calgary or with people living in Calgary
• #yeg - conversations to do with Edmonton or with people living in Edmonton

To include Education Minister Dave Hancock in a conversation, or to reach him via Twitter, you will need to use @DaveHancockMLA

If you are not on Twitter but are interested in participating, check out www.twitter.com for instructions on how to sign up.   It’s free to join.

The more people we can get involved talking about “Save Our Fine Arts” the better, especially if you include the above hashtags!

Happy tweeting!

If not, check it out at:   http://www.gopetition.com/petition/35101.html.  If you are concerned about education in Alberta, don’t miss this opportunity. 

For more information on Dr. Stephen Murgatroyd (author of the petition), CLICK HERE

UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) is a world wide organization set up in 1945 with a mission to build peace, eradicate poverty, and “promote the sustainable development of intercultural dialogue through education, the sciences, culture, communication and information.”

According to an article on their website, ” …Arts Education, which … refers to the teaching of arts practices (visual arts, performing, dance, music, theatre, creative writing and poetry), is of crucial importance to the development of the child and requires awareness, creative thinking, and qualified teachers to challenge all students, not only those with ability and talent.  Research studies have convincingly shown that arts education comprises more than the mere study of the arts and producing works of art, but that it has also been beneficial to students in stimulating their intellectual and personal interests, as well as their social development.” 

The article further states, “…such education, when it makes use of a child’s creative potential, strengthens the acquisition of knowledge and life skills: creativity, imagination, oral expression, manual ability, concentration, memory, personal interest in others, etc.”

To read the full article, CLICK HERE.

SOFA challenges the Premier of Alberta, Minister of Education, MLA’s, officials at Alberta Learning, and officials at School Boards around the Province to read UNESCO’s website regarding the importance of fine arts education.  If you are committed to ensuring that current and future students receive the necessary education to survive and thrive in our global community, make sure fine arts education funding is put back in place so that fine arts teachers can actually teach fine arts. 

Please make sure we don’t become a ‘third world country’ in terms of fine arts education.

For the sake of our children…

The Calgary Science School is a well known, publicly funded charter school that has received extensive recognition for offering a unique, high quality learning environment designed to inspire students to understand more fully the world in which they live.   It provides students in Grades 4 to 9 with an enriched curriculum, infused with mathematics and science.

As of September, 2010, a decision has been made by the school to install a mandatory band program for students in grade 6.   According to the School Principal, “… student engagement in band programs has been shown to contribute to academic success and enhance learning skills.  Participating in a band program allows students to develop greater musical appreciation, maturity and responsibility.”

If you are interested in reading the letter sent by the school to parents, CLICK HERE.

SOFA congratulates the Calgary Science School for making this decision. 

Welcome to the fine arts community!

Based in Ontario, the Coalition for Music Education in Canada is dedicated to ensuring all Canadian children have access to music education.   

On the “latest news” section of their website, they published an article (dated May 10th) in support of SOFA and the signing of our petition at:  http://www.gopetition.com/online/35101.html

Check out their website at:  http://coalitionformusiced.ca/

The Calgary Board of Education (CBE) recently announced they will have to cut up to 165 positions (including teachers) as a result of a significant funding shortfall.   To read the announcement, check out the front page of the May 5^th edition of the Calgary Herald.  You can also read the article on the Calgary Herald’s website  by CLICKING HERE.

SOFA has learned this could mean the reduction of up to 4 teachers per school.  In addition, this could have a negative impact on the CBE’s ability to provide funding for a number of locally developed courses, including a number of fine arts programs.

It is clear the Alberta Government’s cutback in education funding will affect every school district in the Province. Without substantial increases in funding, we could lose a number of fine arts programs across Alberta.  Further, students currently in the school system will not be equipped with the necessary skills (creativity, critical thinking, communication, innovation, etc.) to compete in an ever changing world.  For more information on this, please read previous posts regarding Dr. Stephen Murgatroyd on our website.

Now is the time for every parent, parent to be, student, teacher, and concerned citizen to stand up, be counted, and make a difference:

• Please read and sign the PETITION at:  http://www.gopetition.com/online/35101.html.
• Please ask ALL your family members, neighbours, friends, co-workers, and anyone else you know to individually sign the petition as well.  There is no age restriction to sign.
• Please send an email note to your Premier, Minister of Education, and School Board Officials/Trustees expressing your concern about education funding cutbacks.  For a listing of contact information please check out our SOFA website by CLICKING HERE.
• For those of you in Calgary, you can write to your Calgary Board of Education Trustee by checking out the following website:  http://www.cbe.ab.ca/trustees/trustees.asp
• Please register on our SOFA website by clicking on the red registration button on the top right hand side of our home page.

There comes a time for each of us to stand up and support what we believe in.  If you believe in the value of education, in particular fine arts education – NOW IS THE TIME.

Please check back to our website regularly for future updates.

SOFA  has created a survey directed at Fine Arts educators throughout Alberta to gain a better understanding of how educators are feeling about the current Fine Arts system in place within our K-12 schools in Alberta. SOFA is interested in finding out where Educators believe that the system is working, and perhaps, where improvements can be made.

With the announcement from Alberta Education’s curriculum manager Joan Engle that Alberta Education will be revising the first draft of the new proposed framework for Fine Arts Education in Alberta, with the new draft looking to be ready for the spring of 2011.

In order for us to be the most effective we can, we are seeking information from those that know the system best – you, the educators of the system.  We request that you take some time to fill out the filling survey so that SOFA can better understand what the arts educators feel.

The survey can be found HERE

Thank You!

Hey students, keep an eye out on our new Student Zone! Updates are coming  soon! If you have an idea of what you would like to see, let us know by taking a Quick Survey! Or, just leave a comment!

THANKS!

According to a report by CBC News, “… music lessons can help children as young as four show advanced brain development and improve their memory, even when it sounds like a budding musician is banging out little more than noise, a new Canadian study suggests …. music training could lead to improvements in literacy, verbal memory, visiospatial processing, mathematics and IQ.”

If you are interested in reading the full report, CLICK HERE.