Reactions to VTS

    What speaks to you?
-VTS as a method to encourage open-ended thinking, critical thinking, and discussion among students who otherwise may be reluctant to speak / participate due to the years they've spent in a more restrictive "right / wrong" paradigm.
-Low barrier to entry for VTS, but then also the various levels / progressions children can get to if we allow the time, exposure and guidance.
-Having artistic skills / goals be co-objectives with the "core" academics rather than subordinate.



    Does it give you any ideas?
As a principal, this sparks many ideas within me for coaching staff to overcome the barriers to participation / engagement that we see on a daily basis.  Staff are so worried about test scores and student growth outcomes that they often end up performing the most reductive of teaching tasks rather than trusting their students to go deeper and explore as it can be harder to quantify growth therein.



    How do you integrate art into your current curriculum?
Currently there is little / no integration of art into my school's curriculum, which has not been updated in over 15 years.  We just concluded an ELA curriculum committee to explore various curriculums after prioritizing / unwrapping standards, perhaps this is our next step.



    Other reactions?
I believe that the slow advancement of research-based methods inspired politicians to pursue high stakes testing as it was the easiest way to measure what goes on in schools.  Unfortunately, this led us away from research-based best practices as most schools became reactive to the high stakes rather than the best practices.  It would be nice to be able to convince the public / state / federal govt. to give schools more leeway and quantitative measurements of student growth.