| Salvation from the Spiral: Schools fight truancy
Eric Padilla stands in front of the mural titled Face that he painted on the wall of Studio 121, a photography studio in Loveland. An aspiring artist, Eric paints and is enrolled in video and multimedia classes at Aims Community College. After attending two area high schools and flirting with gangs and other trouble, Padilla received his diploma from Aims and is now working to get his bachelors degree.
ERIC BELLAMY / ebellamy@greeleytribune.com
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Kerry Hart: The danger of interdisciplinary arts education
Wouldn't it be great if we could read a couple of books on brain surgery and be ready to perform an operation? In arts education, that is the type of miraculous feat we often expect from our teachers. Every academic discipline requires a unique intellectual function — from quantitative reasoning to philosophical inquiry. The arts are no different. Dance requires a physical-kinesthetic brain function; music requires an auditory function; visual art requires a visual-spacial brain function; and drama incorporates a combination of several, including the verbal-linguistic function that is important to the literary arts. The college and university curriculum in each arts discipline is rigorous and, indeed, it takes a lifetime to acquire mastery in one subject area. Yet when it comes to teaching students who do not have a background in any of the arts, we create interdisciplinary arts courses that provide a superficial overview — usually from a historical perspective.
Three matchmakers try to help, but Mr. Wrong leads her to Mr. Wow
The Matchmaking Institute in New York City molds novice meddlers into professional love brokers. "It's all about efficiency," says Rachel Greenwald, a professional matchmaker in Colorado. "If, say, you're a busy executive, a third-party setup saves you the time it takes to slog through all the dating arenas — spending hours at a crowded party only to go home having met no one." Since it's one thing to hear about the wonders of matchmaking from those who sell the service and quite another to experience it yourself, I decided to test the viability of this venerable institution by asking three matchmakers to work their magic on me. Here's what happened. Matchmaker No. 1 Rachel Greenwald, author of "Find a Husband After 35 (Using What I Learned at Harvard Business School)," believes in the efficacy of business tactics in every circumstance — even love.
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