Remind me again why public dollars are spent to educate students in art and music?

Keith Stone wrote:

Because a well rounded education has been proven to produce better members of society and thus better employees.

The bad news is people with a better education are less likely to become ignorant bigoted drains on society, i.e. conservatives. So your kind will dry up if the education system is fixed.

With your bigoted generalization of all conservatives, Keith, we can surmise the crappy education you received...

WHAT ABOUT FUNDING F****** RECESS AND NAP TIME THOSE F****** FREELOADERS!

Thank you.

It is very simple. Kids who take art classes and study music get better grades than kids who do not. Music and art are as important to children developing intellectually as math, english and science.

In other countries, art and music classes are usually after school programs. However, the government funding for the arts in Europe, Scandanavia, Asia etc. is massively higher than in the US. So, the after school programs are heavily subsidized. Without government support, art and music for kids would only be accessible to the children of the wealthiest.

In the US, public schools have dominated art and music over after school programs largely because of interscholastic competitions and football. Music programs are always on the chopping block when budgets come up. But they are always saved when the school board finds out that cuts will mean no band at half time during football games.

"For whatever reason, people who value arts have kids who go on to be successful while people who don't value arts are less likely to produce successful kids. You make a good point that people who value arts are more likely to be wealthy themselves."

For whatever reason, people who value expensive sports cars have kids who go on to be successful while people who don't value expensive sports cars are less likely to produce successful kids. You make a good point that people who value expensive sports cars are more likely to be wealthy themselves.

Look a school system that has no money has to prioritize, so the money goes to the basics, what if anything that's left over is for nicer things like art, sports, etc.. It would idiotic to fund art but not have math or science, or english.. get it?

Why do we teach kids anything? Get rid of all this money we waste on education and we could be just like Sudan.

The answer is that some understanding of music and arts is part of a basic education, just like some understanding of astronomy or geology is part of being an educated person, even though most people aren't going to be astronomers and could get through life just fine believing the sun rotated around the earth and the stars are holes in a dome over the earth.

A decent education exposes people to the basics of human knowledge and experience and the music and arts are part of that, whether they ever put a dollar in anyone's pocket.

Mental exercise is analogous to physical exercise. If you want to be physically fit, you do a variety of different things to push your body. Runners lift weights, do plyos, run fast, run slow, etc. You don’t become a good 5K runner just by going out and running a 5K race every day. You push yourself to develop through a number of stimuli.

Similarly, you don’t develop your brain and mental capacity just by completing some narrow range of tasks. You are better off to work through all different kinds of problems and to force yourself to think about things in a variety of different ways. The more different ways you can stimulate thought and problem solving, the more you will develop you mind.

JackOfAss wrote:

Look a school system that has no money has to prioritize, so the money goes to the basics, what if anything that's left over is for nicer things like art, sports, etc.. It would idiotic to fund art but not have math or science, or english.. get it?

Except that is not what is really happening. School systems that have budget issues can almost always solve those issues with a nominal tax increase combined with streamlining and reducing bureaucratic layers of administration. In Norway, teachers pretty much police themselves and have very little in the way of administration looking over their sholders. Not coincidentally, Norway has some of the best public schools in the world. But the political climate is so loaded with stupidity that it has become impossible to have a reasonable debate about the proper amount of revenues that must be raised to support a school system. Instead, people just squak that their taxes are too high and kids suffer when the schools go to crap. Arts and music are generally inexpensive programs. Most High Schools have maybe three or four teachers for band, chorus and musical theater. Most of the expenses are paid for through fundraisers and not tax revenues. Most of the time when a school board moves to cut music and art it is a cut off the nose to spite the face move. Once the cuts are proposed, the community gets pissed and demands that the programs be saved.

SUCH a negative, obsessed loser. You try to make yourself feel superior by desperately (and constantly) clinging to Liberalism as your answer for everything. Think for yourself, you brainwashed dolt."Drains on society?" Hmm. Go check out the Occupy Movement's party affiliation sometime. What do you think? 90% Dem? They do have some great ideas though, like "Everyone else should pay for my education!" Yeah! Nothing's ever THEIR fault.And I hate conservatives too, so don't bother responding with some lame MSNBC bullsh!t.

Keith Stone wrote:

Because a well rounded education has been proven to produce better members of society and thus better employees.

The bad news is people with a better education are less likely to become ignorant bigoted drains on society, i.e. conservatives. So your kind will dry up if the education system is fixed.

"School systems that have budget issues can almost always solve those issues with a nominal tax increase combined with streamlining and reducing bureaucratic layers of administration."

Where do you live?? I want to know who is volunteering to have their taxes increased, what political leader is purposing the raise in tax and lay offs??

"I'm going to raise your taxes AND lay off public school workers! Please elect me!!" Not exactly the best re-election campaign.

At some point budget decisions have to be made, you really cant have everything. Some school systems are at that point and I'd say anyone that keeps art or athletics over academics would get roasted.

JackOfAss wrote:At some point budget decisions have to be made, you really cant have everything. Some school systems are at that point and I'd say anyone that keeps art or athletics over academics would get roasted.

Actually, everything else will get cut before football is cut.

Because we are quickly turning into a society like Star Trek where machines do the work for us, and we are left to pursue our passions.

asdfasdfassdf wrote:

I mean, higher education is more common in republicans than in democrats. Calling "conservatives" idiots or bigoted is an example of a wild generalization yourself. Don't lump the vast majority of rational middle of the road conservatives in with the fringe ultra right and we won't lump in all the democrats with radical communists. And back on the point, I think that having a well rounded education allows you to think critically and analyze multiple things from multiple viewpoints, which is always valuable.

Actually, among people with Graduate degrees, 35% are Democrats and 27% are Republicans. Of course, you probably think "higher education" means Junior College and in that respect, you are correct. Of those who made it to Junior College, 27% are Republicans and 24% are Democrats.