3/16/2009
Arts stressed in every class at Avondale Elementary
Arts stressed in every class at Avondale Elementary in Birmingham, Alabama Monday, March 16, 2009
KIM BRYAN
News staff writer
The sign outside the sprawling brick campus reads Avondale Elementary School.
Writing coach Nelda Geddie calls it "Heaven on a Hill."
Principal Ann Curry refers to the Avondale School of Fine Arts, a name she believes reflects the school's mission.
Visitors are immersed in arts upon entering the vast open lobby at the K-5 school. It creates a museum-like atmosphere with student works including murals, canvases and tiny wooden chairs painted in primary colors.
Music of Beethoven, Bach and Mozart drifts through the school's PA system.
Curry, a 39-year educator, has incorporated arts into each subject of the curriculum during her 10-year tenure, she and her staff said.
For them, arts is not an extracurricular activity, but a discipline essential to learning as much as reading, writing and arithmetic, Curry said.
"Arts lead children to a higher order of thinking," Curry said. "Arts are about interpretation, not just facts. It helps in all subjects and is the type of creative thinking today's global businesses want."
Curry gave an example:
"It's not just that Columbus discovered America in 1492," she said. "It's about why Columbus wanted to sail across the ocean in the first place."
All of the mandatory state Department of Education material is covered in Avondale's daily curriculum, Curry said. Yet students have the opportunity to choose an area of arts they prefer for one hour every day, she said.
It took the faculty a year to devise a schedule that blended arts and required academics, Curry said.
District and state funding cuts over the past four years determined the path Avondale has taken. Administrators, faced with the prospect of losing teachers and programs, had to make tough choices.
Curry made an unexpected choice. Backed by her faculty, she decided not to curtail the arts program.
"The teachers and I got together and talked about our priorities," Curry recalled. "Every teacher shared the same vision. Had it not been for their commitment, the results we've experienced wouldn't have been possible."
Despite the cuts, Avondale's arts program has continued to flourish. Teachers volunteered to teach free arts classes after school. Some had to learn in order to teach them.
Student enrollment, this year at 453, has remained similar during the four years: 93 percent are minorities, and 93 percent qualify for free or reduced lunches for low-income families.
The school now offers music, dance, newspaper publishing, book club and other opportunities. Music teacher Dan Marlow has been able to do his job more successfully when other schools have had to sacrifice music education. He credits Curry's resolute leadership as a main reason.
Orffs:
Marlow also teaches choir and bell choir. He has pinched pennies and used every resource available during his 18 years at Avondale to amass a sizable collection of instruments. His big music room is filled with drums, electronic keyboards and Orffs.
"I probably have the largest collection of Orffs in the city of Birmingham," said Marlow of the specialized xylophone.
PE teacher Valencia Bryant now teaches dance and choreography, too. She recently created a lively routine for students that commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Alvin Ailey dance troupe.
The Avondale neighborhood has supported the school's arts program. It pays for an Alabama Symphony Orchestra violinist to provide string lessons and a Highland Park Racquet Club coach to teach tennis. Both teach lessons twice a week, Curry said.
Curry has developed her philosophy of how the arts strengthen education through her teaching experience in Alabama, Mississippi, Florida and Louisiana, she said. It has shown that children who are regularly exposed to arts achieve higher academically, exhibit fewer behavioral problems and have more family involvement in school activities than students who aren't.
Curry believes the arts help the school meet its Adequate Yearly Progress, which the state uses to measure academic success.
"Arts are usually the first thing to go when money gets tight," Curry said. "But it's through arts that children become more confident, well-rounded adults. Arts aren't a luxury for a child's education, but the foundation for it."
E-mail: kbryan@bhamnews.com
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