It's really amazing. CA used to be such an art friendly state and yet the k-12 schools have cut so much of it out. When I was in Clovis (where the schools were supposedly the best) they refused to do any real art...claiming it was "fluff". I took my kids out of those schools and took them over to Fresno where they ended up in the GATE school. They were in a really great program but even that shifted at about 4th grade.
Part of the problem too was that whenever they were doing "art" classes it was very directed and without allowing the kids to explore. They were all just doing very cookie cutter stuff.
I used to go in and teach art once a week for free and eventually they put a stop to that because the parents were getting upset that the kids would come home "dirty" (all washable stuff) and/or because they didn't like the results. They didn't realize it was more about the process than the end product.
My oldest ended up graduating from a prestigious art school. Truly though the school didn't do much for him. I think so much of it is providing them with the materials, exposure, and the TIME to really explore.
