Parent Involvement in Art Education

Through my experiences observing this semester, there was one thing all three teachers I met could agree on--compared to other subjects, there is a lack of parent involvement in art education. All three teachers reported that at open houses, they usually had less than 10 parents come through the door, despite the fact that they (the high school teachers) teach more than one classroom full of students or, in the case of the elementary school teacher, see every single student in the school.

Seeing as much of the communication and socialization today takes place on the internet, these two RSS feeds could provide a more convenient and effective way for parents to be more involved in the art education community. I think that even sending a newsletter home with these links as an invitation to parents to stay up to date with what their children are learning could be a good start:

ePals RSS feed
As a future educator, I plan to use ePals in my classroom. This feed links to blogs in which parents discuss the safety and effectiveness of ePals, and the ways it connects students all over the world. The ePals RSS feed could be used by parents to encourage bringing learning out of the classroom and into the home environment.

The Artful Parent RSS feed
I feel that many parents do not come in to events such as a school open house because they do not understand why the arts are important to a child's education. This feed features blogs by parents of a wide range of experiences with art education, which can encourage other parents who are unfamiliar with art to become more involved. Seeing that other parents and not just art teachers value art in schools can help keep art classes in schools.