It is now the year 2011 and Facebook is still with us. Can you believe Facebook is nearly seven years old? The question is “Who likes Facebook and why?” The answer is easy as there are millions of people using Facebook worldwide.
I guess we need to know more about our friends and their lives than reading about what is happening in our world and our culture. The past year has given us more of Lady Gaga and Sarah Palin and now this month our new Governor Jerry Brown will need a lot of help from everyone as he and the legislatures deal with many important issues the state is facing.
Another question is will Governor Brown have the help he needs to work on the problems facing Public School Education? There are no easy solutions to make major changes in how the California Education System can be upgraded. The term “think outside the box” might be for the Governor to give more attention to how dollars are allocated to school boards in supporting programs in their schools. Does property taxes play a great role in how schools are supported? Has this area of support been overlooked and not been given new considerations so we can again offer art and music education in elementary schools? Maybe the communication that takes place on Facebook could include discussions about the importance of arts education in our schools. Since our culture is in such constant change it would not be too difficult to use the different forms of “chatting” as a means to tell, talk, assess and support the arts in public school education. Is this possible?
For more information contact Jaylene Armstrong, retired art educator from Madison Wisconsin, at 661-255-3050.