Dear Beresford Families,

I am advocating for improving Visual and Performing Arts education in our elementary schools. In our district math and language arts are given the highest priority while the arts are neglected.

Google's research finds seven of their top eight characteristics of successful employees are soft skills which are fostered by art education. Art teaches social emotional learning, critical thinking, problem solving, and the ability to make connections across complex ideas.

Kids prosper with a curriculum that encourages their varied talents. The highest performing education systems invest in their teachers, yet our district does not employ any certified elementary Visual and Performing Arts educators. Instead we rely on PTA to fill in by funding art programming where it can.

This year with the passing of Measure V we have an opportunity to change that. My message is simple; if we want a high performing education system, we need to hire qualified visual and performing arts educators. If you agree you can get involved by doing the following two things.

Join our San Mateo-Foster City arts advocacy group: https://facebook.com/groups/1592469650899913

Sign the petition at bit.ly/SMFCSDArtAdvocacy

As Sir Ken Robinson points out, “Creativity now is as important as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status.”

Thank you,

Shoshana Gleit