Housewives in Salt Lake City, UT have found that adding their own special touches to a piece of art for their home makes it a much more intriguing and personal item. This can happen when one embroiders a name onto a garment, or when one paints an item they purchased elsewhere. Hobby stores have noted this trend, and many not only sell the ceramic pieces, but also provide a place to paint pottery.

Many families engage in these artistic endeavors together, as they find they all benefit from it. Teenagers are able to perfect artistic skills which are still very important to them at that age, young children work on those fine motor skills they will need to learn to write, and the in-between age kids learn to concentrate and focus on one activity for a long period of time. Mom and Dad get to spend time together with the children, with no television intruding into their special time.

Such activities are becoming more and more important these days, as many public school systems are taking elective art classes out of their curriculum entirely. They want to focus only on the classes which require total linear right-brained thinking, and this is a shame. As usual, public schools educate for a life of cubicles or service-industry jobs rather than encouraging free thought, artistic expression, and fostering the ability to see new ways to approach a problem.

For many students, these electives are the only part of the school day that matters, and removing them will only discourage already frustrated students. The attrition rate in public schools gets higher and higher each year, and so-called experts all want to act like they do not understand why this is happening. It is obvious to anyone paying attention that students who struggle with the reading, writing, and arithmetic curriculum were still excelling in art, music, and often science or literature.

As time goes on, we are losing more and more intelligent young people to mediocre, mind-numbing jobs rather than them pursuing their own potential. While education and intelligence are not the same thing, intelligence without education will rarely get an opportunity to express itself in our society. When creative people fail repeatedly in a world fueled by linear-thinking standardized tests, they eventually give up on school completely.

What they are finding is that many of these activities may have been so poorly scheduled in schools so as to discourage students from taking it. By ramming in more classes, they can graduate others more quickly. By keeping standardized tests as part of their curriculum, teachers can focus all their attention to sending girls and boys off for "Creative education".

Creative education for most means special education where they may be granted a certificate of completion rather than a diploma. Most school districts have changed this tactic, but not all ? More than half of all public schools are still dumping students into special classes in order to help some students to avoid standardized tests, all so they can increase their overall test scores.

It is unclear whether or not pursuing artistic endeavors outside the educational setting will encourage students to stay in school or not, but it is a social test worth conducting. Even if the rate of attrition in public schools does continue, at least those students will have a better rounded experience overall because they have the ability to paint a portrait or play a song. The hope is that, with the proper creative outlets available, most any student will be better able to endure the boredom of the Three Rs.