Under appreciated art

I don't usually vent on here, but today I feel the need. So here goes:

Every semester on the last day of clubs, the elementary school where I work has a parent showcase. As part of this parent showcase, each teacher has to display or show something from each club. For the dance and drama kids this obviously involves performing. However, for art, science, health, etc. this means I have to display student artwork and projects on the wall. This is not so bad. BUT ....yes there's a but and it's a big one . . .

No one, and I mean literally no one ever looks at anything put on the walls. The show starts at seven. The lights go out an for over an hour kids dance and sing around on the stage. The lights come back on and everyone leaves. The dance numbers are in the program and every dance number is announced and every club leader who has a performance is thanked. So what becomes of my fellow art, science, health, etc. club teachers and me? We are never thanked, our displays are not mentioned (either verbally or in the program), and the students who worked very hard and did some excellent art never receive any recognition. It has become quite a frustrating thing me that the "flashy" clubs get all the attention, praise, and perks.

Who would have thought that someone would have complaints about the performing arts being over funded while health, sciences, and reading classes are undervalued. It's an odd place where I work. The budget for the yearly play is (according to my best guesstimate math) in the larger half of the thousands of dollars. There are over 100 costumes complete with hats, jewelry, hairpieces, and hand-painted shirts. But as a teacher of an art class I cannot even have enough glue to last for the semester or enough scissors for each students to have their own (but each girl dancer has their own hair piece). I went an entire year without any markers to use or any waterproof paint (until I finally broke down and bought it myself).

However, every dancer gets their own hooded sweatshirt and every kid in the play got a free trip to the movies. The movie trip is a particularly sore point with me since I specifically asked if we could take the kids in my Dr. Suess reading class to this movie, and then the trip was planned and only offered to the kids in the play. Basically, I am quite enraged that at the school where I work children who do not like to sing and dance are overlooked and unappreciated. They feel less important, less valued, and less special than those kids who do. In my mind, that completely defeats the point of coming to after school. After school should be a safe place where all children have equal opportunities to shine and grow. I think they did some pretty cool things this semester in my opinion:

Rant over.