Participatory Democracy

Last week I attended a New York City Council committee meeting about funding for arts programs in the public schools.

It was really interesting to see how the process works. "Wheels of justice turning slowly" indeed. The meeting started at 1 pm, we moved to a larger chamber at 2:00, and the meeting was finally over at 4. Or maybe it was 5. At any rate, I was part of the last group to give our testimony.

And I think I was the only person there without some other agenda other than just wanting my kid to continue to have art classes. And guess what? My kid hates one of his art classes! (Music.)

Everyone else either worked for an arts organization or was somehow connected to some group that made money or something from dedicated arts funding.

Now, I did attend becuase a group I'm a part of, Center for Arts Education, asked me to, but even the other parents -- all 4 of them-- had some other reason. 1 guy is a musician and he wrote a cute song ("You can't spell 'smart' without 'art", thanks Tom Chapin!); another is getting her teaching degree in, yep, art, so she'd like a job in a few years, and so on.

And I was the ONLY person who told a STORY about ONE kid. Everyone else spoke in generalities or referred to statistics about the value or art in relation to academics. I told a story that illustrated it:

During writing time at school, the way they do it to draw their story, then write the words. DB tells great, detailed stories, but he would only write clipped, short ideas. I thought it was handwriting issue, but last spring the art teacher taught him to draw people beyond the stick-figure style, and now he tells better stories.

I can only think it's because he now is confident he can draw what he wants. His people are still sticks (I didn't say that in my testimony), but he CAN draw whatever he wants.

They liked my story!

I was impressed with the attitude of the committee chairs who had to stay the whole time and listen to new people say the same thing over and over. They were polite and positive and thanked us for staying till the end. One guy who had to leave at 3 (clearly no one had expected the crowd they got) even apologized.