New AP art courses to be offered

Blair will offer Advanced Placement (AP) Music Theory and AP Art History classes for the first time next year as a way to increase both the course variety for students and the number of students who take fine arts electives, said Sara Josey, fine arts resource teacher.

Josey decided to offer the courses after fine arts teachers requested them. She believes that the availability of new and more challenging classes will encourage some students to take more than the single fine arts credit all Maryland high-school students are required to fulfill. "It opens up more opportunities in general to take a second course in art," she said. Art teacher Janet Berry will teach AP Art History and music teacher Daryl Clark will teach AP Music Theory. Whether or not Blair will have the classes is still unclear said Josey. It all depends on the amount of students that sign up for the classes.

Clark, who currently teaches the Music Theory, said that 11 out of 16 students in his class this year have already decided to take the AP exam. According to Clark, on-level Music Theory covers the material in the AP test. Clark said that his current music theory students had wondered why Blair didn't already offer an AP Music Theory class. "Several students told me, if we are doing this stuff anyway why not have the course offered," Clark said.

Clark approves the decision to offer AP Music Theory because it will not only attract more students, but it will also fulfill his current students' desire for more rigorous instruction. "My goal is for music to be respected as an academic subject," he said.

Berry requested to teach the AP Art History because she felt students would be interested in the course. Blair currently offers Arts and Culture, which covers material from a few selected periods in art, whereas AP Art History covers all periods of art, from prehistoric to contemporary, she said. The AP class is also different from other art courses because it is more like a traditional history class as opposed a traditional art class. "We may do one or two ‘hands-on' projects, but it is a rare occurrence," Berry said.

According to Josey, the current budget cuts will not have much effect on the new classes because Blair already has the teachers and the material to teach the courses. Josey would like textbooks for AP Art History but said that if they cannot be bought Berry could create her own instructional materials. Textbooks are not needed for AP Music Theory because the department already has college level music theory textbooks that can be used for the AP course. "We have all of the things we need," Josey said.