CHINA SPRING, Texas (KXXV) — China Spring art teacher Bradley Settles and senior Vivienne Nunez talk on the importance of keeping the arts in schools, and how it keeps a well-rounded student.
- State law requires one year of arts in middle school and one in high school in order to graduate
- Starting September 1st of this year, Texas House Bill 172 comes into effect, creating a new fine arts allotment in the Texas Public School Finance System that provides additional funding to school districts for students enrolled in approved fine arts courses from 6th-12th grade.
- Bradley Settles class is making history.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
It’s not every day you’re part of artwork that’s making history.
“For about three weeks now we've been creating this, project inspired by the Naska Indians of Peru where we've made a geoglyph, a drawing in the earth, and it’s of a cougar since we are the China Spring cougars, and it's meant to mark who we are, what represents us and that we were here,” Bradley Settles said, art teacher at China Spring High School.
“It should be the largest student-led drawing in Texas,” he said.
China Spring art teacher Bradley Settles loves getting his students passionate about his passion for the arts.
“I’m teaching life through the medium of art, meaning I want to teach them how to break down complex ideas into simple units of information. I want to engage the part of them that thought they weren't able to so that they realize that they are, and the greatest civilizations in history were marked by not only their science and mathematics but the uh humanities and the arts so we're going to be great we need the arts as well,” Settles said.
Settles sees the importance of keeping this component of a well-rounded education in schools, as state law requires one year of arts in middle school and one in high school for graduation.
A problem that’s getting run into— funding.
“I think that in an era where we're trying to decide what's valuable, what's the most efficient or effective way to educate. I think removing the humanities removes the humanity in us, and I think that would be a major mistake, so I'm obviously an advocate of the arts in education,” Settles said.
However, starting September 1st of this year, the Texas Public School Finance System will allocate a new fine arts allotment.
It provides additional funding to school districts for students enrolled in approved fine arts courses from 6th-12th grade.
Keeping students like senior Vivian Nunez engaged and expanding her interest in the arts.
“I just like the creativity in it. I like that I can have like an open mind and do like whatever I need to do like in art now,” Nunez said.
Knowing that she’ll carry what she’s learned beyond the classroom.
“What Mr. Settles has taught me is like art is in like many different shapes and forms like there's a lot of different aspects to it. I feel like a lot of people is like you have to learn, you have to know exactly how to draw, you have to know exactly how to do this, but really it's just about your creativity and making your own mind into like putting it on something, so, your creativity,” Nunez said.
