Walt Disney couldn't draw anatomically correct hands, so he put gloves on everyone and called it a day. That problem-solving mindset built an empire that now owns half of Hollywood (slight exaggeration, heavy on the slight).
Compare that to modern schools, where administrators respond to tight budgets by cutting art programs instead of getting creative about solutions. Even some thinking teaching kids to draw is an expensive hobby rather than training for a $2 trillion creative economy, or better yet, getting them excited to learn.
Our visual arts teacher Lindsey Sherrard has spent over a decade watching this strategic fumble play out. Her take: We're preparing students for jobs that don't exist while ignoring the creative skills driving every industry that actually pays well. It's like training marathon runners by making them sit in chairs all day.
Here’s what’s on the dashboard this week:
Today’s Deep Dive: The ROI rules of ROY G. BIV.
Reading Rainbow: Literature feels + CTE dreams
From Our Desk: How to catch us on the road!
Watch of the Week: If Sherlock was a PTA mom…
Don’t Cut Art Programs. Here’s The ROI of ROY G. BIV.
Mickey Mouse has three fingers and a thumb, wears the same outfit every day, and somehow became more recognizable than most world leaders.
The same goes for art education and students. After a decade of teaching visual arts from kindergarten through high school, Lindsey found students remembered their art projects more than any other school experience.
"A lot of times when I ask students about their day, they tell me something they learned about in art."
That enthusiasm spreads to every classroom. Unfortunately, budget cuts are looming and districts face many touch choices, leaving many administrators feeling the pressure to cut art programs. So, instead of capitalizing on this natural student engagement booster, schools keep treating arts programs like premium cable—nice to have, first to go.
But what if we told you there’s a way to keep art programs while staying under budget and achieving academic excellence?
While districts debate budgets, students are already creating and thinking visually. Schools can either harness that creativity as an academic accelerator, or keep cutting programs that make learning memorable.
Read Lindsey’s full playbook where she shares exactly how:
When Feelings Meet Literature (Oh, and Students Care More Than You Think): Turns out teaching tone in ELA isn't just about identifying whether the author sounds grumpy or cheerful. Students can write poems from character perspectives, adjust their reading tempo to match emotions, and even perform tableaus that bring story feelings to life—basically turning literature class into the kind of creative experience students actually remember.
Shop Class Is Having a Moment…Finally!: Career and technical education programs are expanding faster than a freshman's college debt, with 61% of educators reporting increased CTE offerings over five years. Students want drones, cybersecurity, and AI training while districts struggle with space, equipment costs, and finding qualified teachers. It's like everyone suddenly realized that maybe teaching actual job skills isn't such a radical concept.
AI Debate Gets Stuck in Academic Purgatory: Schools are still divided between banning AI tools completely or letting students loose with ChatGPT like it’s water balloons. Meanwhile, experts suggest teaching responsible usage instead of playing digital whack-a-mole with technology that's already everywhere. Because nothing says "preparing students for the future" like pretending the future doesn't exist.
NYC Schools Accidentally Prove Charter School Critics Wrong: A new analysis of 138 NYC schools beating reading expectations found that charter schools make up 9.5% of the state sample but earned 38.5% of the spots on the "Bright Spots" list. Seven of the top 10 highest-scoring schools were Bronx charter schools, and a movie we’d like to see and title A Bronx’s (Fairy)Tale.
We’re on the road still with exciting stops:
DLAC Ignite, February 18-20 in Sacramento CA
CASE Winter Leadership Conference, February 19-20 in Loveland, CO
Rural Schools Spring Conference, February 19-20 in Austin, TX
KSBA Annual Conference, February 20-22 in Louisville, KY
Find us on the floor, and get in touch with [email protected] if you want to chat!
Our pick of the week: High Potential
Why We’re Obsessed: It's basically Sherlock Holmes if he traded Victorian crime scenes for PTA meetings, swapped deerstalker hats for Bratz doll fashion choices, and happened to be a woman juggling actual mom life. Morgan (main character) solves mysteries using the same skills we desperately want our students to develop: paying attention to details, connecting random information, and not immediately jumping to the wrong conclusion. (Looking at every student choosing “C” for every question…)
Recommended lesson integration:
Deductive reasoning in math word problems: Step into the minds of Morgan and Karadec (or Sherlock and Watson), and use the show's problem-solving methods to break down complex equations step by step. Students will finally have a reason to care about "if Train A leaves Chicago at 3pm!
History murder mystery investigations: Hunt down Jack the Ripper! Frame historical events as cold cases where students analyze "evidence" to solve what really happened, because "Who Killed the Roman Republic?" is way more compelling than another PowerPoint about senators.
Research and evidence evaluation: Get students to practice how to distinguish between assumptions and actual evidence—a crucial skill for navigating both Wikipedia, ChatGPT, and family group chats.
Creative writing: mystery story structure: Learn how to plant clues without giving away endings (unlike most student mystery stories where the butler did it by paragraph two because subtlety is hard)
Psychology and motivation in social studies: Go all Sigmud Freud. Help students explore what drives people (and countries) to make different choices under pressure. Trust us, it’s more useful than memorizing dates of wars nobody wants to repeat anyway.
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Thank you for joining us for another edition of On The Subject. We’ll see you again in a week, with more stories from the hallways.
The Subject Team
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