So what would California students lose if Governor Schwarzenegger signs AB2446, effectively eliminating the arts/foreign language high school graduation requirement? We looked to Granada High School in Livermore, California to find out. Currently, all students at Granada High School choose from a number of rich, content-filled courses to fill this requirement — courses like:
- French, German and Spanish to “develop cultural understanding and fluency in the language being studied.”
- Art: Drawing/ Painting to “develop the ability to aesthetically value and appreciate works of art, as well as understand the relationship between art, culture and history.”
- Drama to “learn the foundations of performance: pantomime, improvisation, voice, diction, movement and technical theater.”
If the Governor signs AB2446, students could instead take courses designed to train them for the workforce — courses like:
- Hospitality to “learn grooming and proper work ethic.”
- Fashion Apparel to “learn sewing machine basics.”
- Landscape Design to “grow flowers, ornamental plants and vegetables.”
- Food for Singles to learn culinary “short cuts, new techniques, budgeting their food dollars, and multiple uses of appliances.”
For all the urgency generated by economic rationales for education reform, education is about more than workforce preparation. It’s about building creativity, wonder, cultural literacy and citizenship, for starters. Governor Schwarzenegger, don’t allow AB2446 to narrow the purpose of education.
Stephanie Porowski
This blog is total crap. Where did you do your research? Do you really think that a fashion design course is only “Sewing machine basics?” That is an insignificant part to a complex curriculum. It’s like you’re saying Geometry class consists of “Drawing a circle with a compass.”
You arts people are starting to p*ss me off with your lies and alarmism. Look up the California Standards for Career Technical Education. I’d love to see how many of the math, English, science standards YOU could do in ANY of the CTE areas. http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/ct/sf/documents/ctestandards.pdf
“Food for Singles” is NOT a CTE course; it sounds like a bonehead course for kids barely passing high school. A Culinary Arts course has standards that are as rigorous as any academic class, and actually includes many academic standards.
Don’t be an elitist. California is moving in the direction of Career Technical Education. I would recommend we spend time and effort figuring out how YOU can fit into this paradigm instead of focusing on defeating legislation in order to limit student’s access to a valid curriculum.