Recently Brown paper has been put up in order to cover all forms of visual art in the school. This is a result of funding being cut to the art program, and the elimination of an essential class in the cycle of art class. This happens at a lot of schools, however Deerfield is one where there is enough money to not be cutting arts classes. Especially after an $89 million dollar referendum was passed in the last year. 

Art 1 is a class that is essential in the art class process, the normal process being Art 1-->Drawing and Painting-->AP Art. Art 1 teaches techniques that are essential for the next several years of art. Intro to Art is the class taking place of Art 1. I'm not saying Intro is a horrible, awful class, but it doesn't give the same kind of preparation for the next steps of the art class process as Art 1. Intro is also a semester long course, which is one reason why it can't give that preparation. 

Art isn't valued at Deerfield. We have great art programs right now that do amazing work for kids and open doors. The major student body however doesn't really think of Art as that important from my experience. It's something that's "cool if you can do it" but it isn't valued. Many students have never been to R hall (the hall where most fine arts classes are. 

I don't want this to be taken as "I hate sports", I don't, I think they can be very good for people and can create great experiences. Art does the same. So, I don't see why one gets so much more over the other. There are more kids in sports, but 1)fine arts is a required course 2)it does the same thing for some kids that sports does for others. In our community/area we should have enough money to be able to fund the Fine Art programs, so why don't we?