Week #6: Parent Letter Example

This week we discussed a variety of important topics related to the functioning of your average art classroom including writing parent letters, writing syllabi, exhibiting student art, and participating in National Art Honor Society.  We were challenged to write an example of a letter to parents.  My example can be found below:

_________________________________________________________________________________

Parents and Guardians of Unnamed School Students:

Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to welcome you and your children to my art class.  I am very excited to get to know you all better, and to see what we can create over the course of the semester. 

I want to take a moment to thank you for enrolling in an art class and let you know that you have made a great decision concerning the education of your children.  Art education is vitally important to the development of well-rounded young people prepared for the adult world.  Art teaches children skills related to communication, empathy, collaboration, problem solving, and critical thinking.  Art can give students the confidence to be honest communicators, to ask questions, to handle criticism, and to create personally important pieces.  More than that, it provides them with an outlet of expression and a sense of pride in their own work.

Speaking of that sense of pride, I would like to inform you all of a few exhibition opportunities for our students this year.  Showing student work publicly is an important part of the art curriculum, and important to students’ pride and work ethic.  Firstly, we have a Biannual Student Art Show at the end of every semester here at the school where we exhibit the best pieces of each student enrolled in our art classes.  In addition, the school district holds an annual juried art show at the district office.  Beyond the local level we also send student work to participate in the State Fair, the Young Artist’s Show at Unnamed University, shows at the county community center, and Scholastic Art Awards.

Again, I am very happy to welcome you all this semester and I look forward to working with you.  If you ever have any questions, or need to reach out to me for any reason at all, please feel free to contact me at (555)555-5555 or exampleemail@unnamedschool.art.net.  Thank you, and take care.

Sincerely,

-Nathan G. Smith