Camp, family vacation or daily trips to the swimming pool are the choices most parents face during summer. But in Fairfax County there might be another choice, school. No, not school exactly, but rather a fine arts workshop provided by the county school system.
The Elementary Institute for the Arts is 20 days of two 90-minute sessions where children can learn participate in four disciplines of the arts in a carefree atmosphere.
The program is an expansion of the same institute at the high school and middle school levels. Last Friday ended the pilot program at Forest Edge Elementary to test the expansion into the elementary level and, according to educational specialist Michelle Padgett, it was a complete success.
"You can really see that the kids are truly engaged," said Padgett pointing to the students’ precious response.
The decision to expand the program to the elementary level came after the 20th anniversary at the high school and middle school level. Padgett contacted the fine arts coordinator, Roger Tomhave, to inquire about the level of interest parents had to seeing the program at the grammar school level. "With almost 400 kids in the program, there definitely is a parent interest, as well as a student interest," Padgett said.
The institute offers 27 courses in four disciplines of music, dance, art and theater. Some of the more popular courses include Hip-Hop dancing, stage combat, digital art and cartooning. And along with the staple arts like sculpting, painting, violin and puppetry, the institute gives students an array of choices.
Since the students take two courses, the children and parents can both get their way. Lisa Stern wanted her fourth-grade daughter Shayna to take violin. Shayna got her choice to learn ballet.
"She wanted to do a variety of activities over the summer, and we wanted to keep an educational tone," said Stern. "It was a great compromise for her to do two activities without having to run back and forth and place-to-place." She also liked how this program provided the opportunity for her daughter to experiment with different interests before committing more time and money.
Bryan Carvajal, who teaches the digital arts course, said this gives the students the chance to be introduced to computers much earlier in life, especially for those who attend schools that don’t have computer labs.
"[It] gives them an opportunity where they will get a preview of what is out there," said Carvajal who teaches at Brookfield Elementary during the school year. "These are fifth, sixth and even fourth graders who are getting exposure to things that weren’t available 10-years ago.
The future of the program will be decided in December after the office of Instructional Services reviews it. Padgett said financial self-sustainability, parents’ opinion survey, enrollment and what facility would be best are all factors in the decision to continue to program next summer. The hope is that the program will grow to include two locations, thereby making the program more accessible to all of Fairfax County.