The importance of art eduction

Although I live in Charlottesville, Virginia, I have absolutely no affinity for the University of Virginia athletic teams. Seeing the swim teams, lacrosse teams, baseball team and rowing team succeed is nice, but I couldn't give a rat's rear about the Cavalier football or basketball teams. So, in general, I don't follow them, and I don't generally bother reading any news articles about either of them. But this one caught my eye... and made me grin:

For those who don't know, the UVa men's basketball team really sucks this year... worse than usual... last in the ACC. There was some renewed hope early in the season with a new coach and a small win streak. But the end of the regular season saw them string together an impressive series of consecutive losses. So, desperate for a win, it was particularly odd to hear that the coach suspended the team's star player, Sylven Landesberg, prior to the final game for "academic reasons". (FYI: UVa lost that game.)

Stick with me, the art part is coming, I promise.

Turns out, the academic reason for the suspension was that Landesberg was skipping his art class. And by "skip", I mean, he never went! Read the news article here. Apparently, he went to his other classes, but not to art. Bad decision. I'm guessing Landesberg, like many of the shallow thinkers out there, believes art is a skipable class and carries no repercussions for doing so.

I tip my hat to Coach Tony Bennett for taking a stand. I'm sure he would do the same thing if Landesberg skipped his math class. But, in this situation, we all get to see the importance of art in every student's education, even student-athlete's.

Comments

[Mark Robbins]

I agree with you thoughts about the new Coach- Tony Bennett...he seems to be a man of integrity

[Ken]

C'mon -- get the facts straight. Sure, they sucked, but they weren't last...