Did you use algebra today? Did you use music and art? I don’t know when I last used algebra, but every day I hear music and experience art. I use my public school  art education to live an artful life — seeing the pattern of an evergreen against blue sky, driving a well-designed car, eating a meal on a pottery plate, putting on a color-coordinated outfit. Creativity surrounds us in the designs of the natural world and in the designs of the human world.

In the 1940s and ’50s, I was blessed by public school fine arts teachers who provided the necessities for me to live artfully. In the 2000s,  for seven years I was an art docent in a kindergarten. Those 5-year-olds were confident, excited, courageous, creative artists. I never heard “I can’t, I’m no good.” They were artists! They were inspired. They were dauntless.

I believe all of us are created artists. If we have the materials, the time and place and the incentive, our creative selves flourish.  Every culture values its musicians, its dancers, its poets, its actors, its visual artists. It is imperative for cultural survival.

The resolution passed on May 9 by the North Kitsap School Board  declaring May as Arts Education Month clearly states the value of the arts in education to our society.  (Google it.) NKSD must acknowledge  the  impact of the arts by fully funding them.

Fine Arts Boosters (FAB) of Kingston High School works to connect the North Kitsap community to the talents of its music, drama, debate and visual arts students because we recognize the benefits of the arts in our community and we value those students and teachers.

The lack of support for fully funding all of education — district, state and nation wide — is appalling and short sighted. Why is it we do not value our children? Their education? This attitude must be turned around. Our future depends on it.

Marilyn Liden Bode
Kingston