To the Editor:

I am twelve years old, a seventh grader attending Madrid Waddington and maintain an average in the nineties. I am going to tell you a story of what will happen to the good people here at Madrid-Waddington Central School if you choose to cut music, gym, art and other such classes.

Once upon a time, a little girl went to music class on day five. She smiled and she sang, she danced and she played, but all the while without realizing she learned. The next day five, her teacher announces that they will not be going to music, the girl cannot go and play. (Now mind you she is a young girl, a first grader.)

The girl looks to her teacher and asks, “Why teacher why can I not go to music class?”

“Because it is gone,” the teacher says and walks away leaving the girl with big sad watery eyes.

The next day the same thing happens with art. And the same conversation passes between the girl and teacher. When it happens to physical education, the girl does not bother asking the teacher for she now knows she will get the same answer.

Over the years the girl starts became extremely depressed and began partaking in self-mutilation (or as you may know it, she began “cutting herself”), because she had no other outlet. She had no physical education class to develop her athletic abilities in. She had no art class to express her feelings in, she had no music class to voice them in either.

The girl is now 17. The life she could have had when she was a first grader, now gone. She cannot be a singer for she has not learned how to properly sing. She does not even know the singing scale. She cannot be in the Olympics for she has no idea how to jump a hurdle. And she cannot be an artist for she has never learned to draw.

Well, you might say “she can be a doctor, scientist, politician, because although cutting classes of expression was “essential” we could not cut the “important ones” such as math and science.

However, ladies and gentlemen of the Board, I disagree. Art, music, and gym are essential in the development of our youth. They open options and broaden horizons that are otherwise closed off. And not only does it affect the children it drastically impacts the lives of the teachers who teach those specific classes.

They lose their jobs, which leads to a decrease if not a halt entirely in their source of income. Many people will end up homeless and many children will end up unable to express their true feelings. I thank you for taking the time to read my letter and I hope it made an impression on you.

Cheyenne Morrison

Madrid-Waddington student