What are we doing about school for our children this year? Many are setting up more formal and permanent home learning areas. This means multiple workstations ,containing laptops and other technology for connecting to virtual classrooms, all organized and equipped for streaming and interactive learning experiences, sometimes including musical instruments and easels with drawing and painting supplies, or maybe just homemade modeling clay. The important thing is to create this as real in this Coronavirus time; to make it an experience that will be valued by the parents and the students as they move into their futures.

What we need is competence. Each student needs to learn the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic, and each student needs to learn how to use these skills in living. Everyone also needs to learn the essentials of the basic art forms of humanity, since these carry our culture into the future. Even if every student does not want to work as an artist as an adult, understanding what goes into writing a symphony or pop song, or making a movie, will expand their enjoyment throughout their lives. Perhaps their creating will continue in some surprising way. Society could only benefit. Competence in anything is key to pleasure in doing it. "The true 'gift of heaven' may have been the potential to be competent.", L. Ron Hubbard. www.thewaytohappiness.org @waytohappinesstampa