Reflections (yet another Herriman Herald article)

When I was in kindergarten, my teacher Mrs. Smith sent notes home to my mother about how she just knew I was going to be a great artist one day. In fact, her exact words were: "I never had such an artist. You had better get ready to have a famous person in your family!" I loved drawing. I drew and drew and drew when I was a child.

Then something happened. I must have gotten carried away with life because I soon forgot how much I loved to draw and twenty years later, I found myself crying over lost opportunity as I scoured a box flooding over with my artwork and these notes attached. I had never even taken the offered art classes in middle or high school. I wish I had.

Because now when you hear about budget cuts in schools, it seems art programs are the first to go. Even though school administrators undoubtedly know the important role of the arts in a child's education. More specifically, that the arts boost your child's creativity and imagination and problem-solving skills and if you delve even further, his self-esteem.

The National PTA offers an annual art Reflections Program, which does not cost the local school district. This program is designed to encourage your child to produce artwork in the following areas: literature, musical composition, photography, and visual arts (including but not limited to drawing and painting). In Utah, the categories are extended to include an additional four: dance, theatre, 3D and film and video.

Each year, approximately 60,000 students in Utah enter artwork in the Reflections recognition program. It's an exciting program and may propel your child to realize talents that he may not have known existed otherwise. Or if you're well aware of a talent, it's a chance share it and be recognized for it.

This year's theme is "My Favorite Place." Artwork should be created around this theme, whether it be an abstract idea or exactly what it seems—your child's favorite place to be—whether that's his room, or his tree house, or on stage of a theatre performance. When I was a child, my favorite place was probably sitting on a barstool coloring as my mother baked chocolate-chip cookies.

Please encourage your child to submit works of art for the Reflections program. You won't regret it. If nothing else, it's something you can add to that box of promising artwork for your child to find when he's 25 and looks back on his childhood.

After much reflection this morning, I think I might sign up for a drawing class. It's never too late, right?