At the beginning of the school year we began a Visual Arts program at Balanced Life Skills. There is no doubt in my mind that visual and performing arts is important to students of all ages. There are some students who connect with those far more than with physical activity, and I believe to reach them with our message of creating peace in our lives and building character can be done better with the visual arts.
I am impressed with some of the work our students are doing in that line including one of our black belts, Hannah Geib, who has written a play on bully prevention and is taking classes at the community college on creative writing and film. We have another student, Allison Wood, who is a student in the arts program in the public schools system. She did a great job on the lead in a play that I saw recently. Others in our school also have great abilities in those areas.
Recently the program at Bates was highlighted by a national group, Edutopia. Here is the video that they posted. Integrating arts in the education of our children is very good. Please check out our Visual Arts or Martial Arts. We are looking for teachers in all of these categories. Do you have a skill that you would like to share with Balanced Life Skills Students?