Community High School has a long history of an open and accepting mindset, and therefore attracts an abundance of creative and artistic people: art classes are always popular. Currently, there are seven classes to choose from and they’re in such high demand, freshmen rarely get into them.
These seven classes are a dramatic decrease from the eleven that were offered just seven years ago. “You know what happens when districts cut budgets. What do they cut first? They cut the arts,” said Steve Coron, an art teacher at Community High. Concerning the future of the art program, he said forcefully, “We need more art classes!”
Not only would more art classes allow larger groups of students to participate in the program, but also a
wider variety of classes would be available. Coron said that a humanities class would be a nice addition, along with more art history. A humanities class would include art, music, and theatre, all in one class. Students have requested this class in previous years, and the class is already available at other high schools in the district.
Instead of the usual position of far removed authority, Coron sees himself as just another artist in the room, but a more experienced one.
Coron acts as a guide to the students, pointing them in the right direction to find their own answers. “It’s not the kind of class with all the answers here, and then they’re on the sheet, and you take a test. My classes aren’t like that. That’s just the nature of art, really.” He tries to get students to express themselves, or to tell story with their art. “I don’t want students to be stuck, I want them to be…a total thinker, a total artistic thinker.”
These unique class experiences are beneficial to high school students in more ways than one. Coron explained, “We need more opportunities for you folks to take classes where you can use your hands, use you brains in different ways. Not because it helps you be smarter in other classes. It helps you be smarter in general.” Sierra Koepele, and art student said art is important to her. “I guess it’s just a way of self expression, definitely, and a way for me to channel my creativity into something visual, something people can see and not just an idea floating around in my head.”
Coron considers a trusting relationship with his students an important part of his teaching. “I’m a people person…and if you separate me from the art part and you just look at me as an educator, and you talk to me as an educator, not an artist, my philosophy of education is relationship based, which means if you don’t trust me as a person, and I don’t trust you as a student, and we don’t have a good working relationship based on that, then no learning is going to happen.”
