How is Gilyard's Essay and the NEA article important to Unit #3?

In Gilyard's essay, he talked about an after-school creative arts program that was closed down due to lack of funds. During this time, the after-school program was closed because of fiscal cuts. Most of the time, humanities classes are sacrificed for STEM initiatives. In this after-school arts program, elementary school students share their experiences and talents involving different forms of art such as poetry, lyrics, oral interpretation, song, drawing, story writing and dance. It is unfortunate that practices of such activities are becoming less and less during school hours. 

The Mexican American Studies (MAS) program, in the NEA article, was banned because it "promoted resentment of mainstream culture" (MAS - pg.21). This was a very unfortunate event because MAS was well-known for academic achievement. "Ninety-seven percent of students participating  in the program graduated from high school, compared to 44 percent nationally, and 70 percent entered college, compared to 24 percent nationally" (MAS - pg.21). MAS was established in 1998 to improve retention and graduation rates among Mexican Americans. The reason why this program was successful was because MAS's curriculum presented content from Chicanos and other ethnic group's perspective. Teachers and students from the program strongly opposed the close down of MAS. The reason for this is the unfair treatment towards Mexican American students and because of the people involved in the school board and Superintendent of Public Instruction. That is because the members of the school bored and Superintendent of Public Instruction are not educators. They do not understand the hardships and responsibilities teachers face. It is unfair how these people in power, with no educational experience whatsoever, make regulations and policies about education.

These two readings helped with the third assignment because it addressed more problems regarding the educational system. It provided more perspectives and examples of which direction we want to go through in our paper. It also provided another source that could be used to enhance details in our paper.