No Child leaves art and music behind; Why not a disabled Disney princess?; Teach life support in schools; Act to lessen child hunger; Act to toughen texting while driving law

No Child, Common Core leave art and music behind in schools

Tight school budgets and the focus on the Common Core curriculum mean robbing art and music classes from schools.

Cutting back funds on art and music programs has been taking place not only in Ohio but across the country. Now the Ohio Board of Education is considering eliminating its mandates for music and art classes.

Due to the No Child Left Behind Act, more focus has been directed toward the subjects that the state is testing students on, such as math, science and reading. But art and music still are important to a child’s education because they increase creativity skills and standardized test scores.

Art and music programs help increase different essentials that help make a well-rounded student. It has been proven to increase creativity, social, emotional, and motor skills. These skills are not enhanced in subjects such as math and science.

President Obama has mentioned the importance of education in our country many times. He has said that providing children with a well-rounded education prepares students for college and jobs.

Focusing too much on reading and math does not give students the well-rounded education that they need. Without creativity, students may suffer in jobs such as engineering and business management where thinking outside the box is a must.

The College Entrance Examination Board found students in music programs scored 63 points higher on the verbal and 44 points higher on the math section of the SATs than students with no music participation.

Ohio and other states across the country should not be thinking of ways to eliminate the arts in schools. They should be thinking of creative ways to keep art and music in schools, before it is too late.

Samantha Basista, Youngstown

Advice to Disney: Disabled people have a right to be princesses, too

Delaney Skye is a 15-month- old girl who loves Disney princesses and is currently obsessed with the Disney movie, “Frozen,” according to recent news reports.

Delaney is a handicapped girl born with Down Syndrome. She has an older sister who is 6 years old. Her sister has picked up on the fact that none of the Disney princesses looks or acts like her baby sister, and it upsets her.

Also upset by this are the girls’ parents. They have actively started a petition to Disney to include princesses with handicaps. To this day, none of the princesses pose any handicaps or disabilities.

This leaves girls and boys to believe that these princesses are the ideal image of girls and women all over.

A princess is looked upon as perfect and the role model of so many little girls across the world. Disney princesses are almost unrealistic figures of women and unattainable goals of kids everywhere.

Having a princess with a disability will begin to show children that not all role models are flawless and that even though they have a disability they’re also beautiful and capable of living a normal life.

Disney has brought princesses of other nationalities into their roles of princess and into their movies, yet still not one of them is handicapped. Disney’s inclusion of a handicapped princess would encourage children to not only accept people with different nationalities but to accept and appreciate people with disabilities. This would be a great way to educate children on different disabilities and show them how to treat them just like any other person.

So far, Disney has not responded to the parents of little Delaney Skye. But, one can hope that soon the Delaney family’s vision of a fairy tale will have a happy ending as well, and they’ll see that dreams do come true.

Gina Tucker, Canfield

Teach Basic Life Support in schools

Learning basic life support saves numerous lives a year. Members of the community that become certified in BLS can be an integral part in preventing death due to cardiac arrest. The American Heart Association says that about 70 percent of Americans do not know how to act in a cardiac emergency because they do not know how to do cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR). If adults are uninformed and unprepared when it comes to performing BLS, the number of children who do not know what CPR is or how it is performed must be even higher.

The Centers for Disease Control says that from 2005 to 2009, there were about 3,500 unintentional drowning deaths in the U.S. About 1 of 5 of those deaths were children 14 years old and younger. Could you imagine the lives that could be saved if BLS was taught to school-age children?

I believe that schools should be required to pay for BLS training for their students so that they can become certified.

This would include CPR, the use of an automated external defibrillator, and relief from choking. There are many situations that children find themselves in without adult supervision, let alone supervision by adults that are BLS certified. It takes about four minutes of cardiac arrest before the brain starts to die. Imagine children swimming in the pool and one happens to drown, or children eating at lunch where one happens to choke without an aide or teacher around. If these children learned the basics, they could at least preserve some brain function and hopefully save a life.

Zach Matisi, Lowellville

Congress must act on child hunger

Sept. 30 came and went with little notice. For many, it was just another day on the calendar. For me and other child-hunger advocates around the country, it’s an important marker.

That’s because, one year from that date, Congress will have to renew the child nutrition bill, currently known as the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. The bill funds programs that provide kids with healthy meals during school, and just as importantly, when kids are not in school such as the summer, weekends, and after-school programs.

I’m tired of seeing Congress accomplish nothing. And when it comes to children, I don’t believe this country can afford to wait. I hope Congress works together next year and passes a strong child nutrition bill that provides our kids with the fuel they need to be productive in the classroom and beyond and makes sure no child in this country goes to bed hungry. I, for one, will be watching.

Marissa Gray, Youngstown

Crack down on texting & driving

Ohio’s ban on texting while driving should be changed. Under the current law, it is a primary offense for drivers under age 18, but only a secondary offense for drivers over that age. This means that a police officer can ticket adults for texting while driving only if they are first pulled over for committing a primary offense. However, if an officer sees a minor texting while driving, the officer can pull him or her over immediately and issue a ticket.

Minors face a $150 fine and license suspension for 60 days for the first violation. Second and subsequent violations result in a $300 fine and license suspension for one year. The penalty for adult drivers, whether it is their first or tenth violation, is a fine of up to only $150.

Texting while driving makes the driver 23 times more likely to have an accident. It also causes a 400 percent increase in time spent with eyes off the road. It is certain that most, if not all, of us have witnessed these drivers and the dangers they pose. A recent survey revealed that 14 percent of all drivers admit they text or read emails while driving. Currently, minors are being held more accountable than their own parents. Penalties should be the same for all people violating this law.

Elizabeth Callahan, Lowellville