20220612-CAPITALSTYLEMAGAZINE-T-0 - Flipbook - Page 72
ing text and images into a single artwork,
requiring her to switch back and forth seamlessly between left-brain logic and right-brain
intuition.
That’s all the evidence Jackie Coleman and
Claudette McDonald need that the arts can
help undo damage inflicted on kids during
the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The impact that COVID has had on learning has been just devastating,” said McDonald, Maryland Hall’s education coordinator.
“I’m hearing from teachers that they feel
that they’re having to teach everything they
would normally cover in two school years in
just one.”
Reading and math scores have plummeted
across the nation, a study published in March
by Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institute found. What’s worse, the test score gap
widened between the poorest schools and
their higher-income counterparts. Educators
have long known that prison officials look at
third grade test scores — the year, Coleman
said, that kids go from learning to read to
reading to learn — to calculate how many
prison cells to build in the future.
“I’m a huge proponent of integrating arts
into the curriculum because it benefits the
whole person,” said Coleman, Maryland Hall’s
executive director.
“We know that not everyone learns in the
same way. Some people are kinesthetic learners and some people are auditory learners.
Arts instruction activates multiple intelligences.”
A study of 25,000 California students
published in 2005 concluded that students
who participated in the arts received higher
verbal and math scores on their SATs than
students who didn’t act in plays, paint watercolors or perform in a band.
“The arts are a powerful tool,” Coleman
said. “They can open the mind and heart and
even the soul.”
In Anne Arundel County, arts instruction
doesn’t have to stop when the school year
ends.
Arts camps are everywhere, from Maryland Hall to the Anne Arundel County Parks
and Recreation Department’s Abrakadoodle
Art Programs, to private musical schools and
community theaters. There’s a camp to fit
every interest and price point, from free to
two-week, preprofessional sessions costing
in the four figures. And even the priciest
programs offer scholarships.
While this article can’t include every summer arts camp in the county, below are five
likely to appeal to a variety of interests.
Children’s Theatre of Annapolis
1661 Bay Head Road, Annapolis.
410-757-2281. childrenstheatreofannapolis.org
The Children’s Theatre of Annapolis, now
72 | SUMMER 2022 | capitalstylemag.com
Fearless Girls Photography Camp is a photography workshop offered at ArtFarm Studios.
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