The Talent Show

Rich and I went to Harry's High School talent show tonight. We were surprised at the talent.

Everyone is so worried about the disappearance of the arts in our schools- especially here in California. When cuts need to be made, it's never in the sports department- no one would ever cut funding to Football. But music and art and drama- somehow they are never important enough.

And yet I saw some really amazing singing, piano playing, dancing, even spoons tonight. The winner played the ukulele. I guess funding can be cut from the arts but not talent. Whether it's parents providing lessons and support or just the shear desire of the student to perform-the arts are still alive.

It was so encouraging to see teenagers applauding and cheering each other on- whether the performance was outstanding or a little off. It made me glad to be a parent of a teenager. Harry had a very small part playing the box drum in a small group and yet as we were leaving so many told him he had done a great job.

I'm a great believer in the importance of the arts in school. I wish somehow the powers that be would come to the realization that the greatest minds of all time were artists of some kind- I don't think Leonardo DaVinci played football, Einstein was not the most popular student in his class, and Mozart probably didn't win a state championship.