SAN MARCOS – Although bureaucrats often eye arts programs first when trimming public education budgets, Merryl Goldberg believes the arts can save at-risk students from falling through the cracks by helping them improve their communication, critical thinking and life skills.

The Cal State San Marcos professor is so dedicated to her belief that in 2003, she formed Center Artes. The organization helps teach history, language arts, science and math to at-risk students by using art and theater projects. Center Artes educators work with North County middle and high school students enrolled in Advancement Via Individual Determination, a program for at-risk students.

“When we integrate the arts or teach something through the arts, we hear from a lot of teachers, 'Oh my God, my students who were underperforming are doing so much better,'” Goldberg said. “What it tells me is that those students weren't necessarily underperforming or low achievers; it's just that now they have this other way to express themselves.”

Last month, Goldberg's San Marcos-based organization received a $9,600 grant from the California Arts Council. The funding will allow Center Artes to visit additional middle schools in San Marcos and Vista and work with as many as 900 students. It currently sees between 300 and 500.

Middle school is considered a turning point, beyond which it becomes increasingly difficult to alter an at-risk student's educational trajectory.

“Some of the middle school principals are concerned that if we don't catch kids in the sixth grade, they have a lot higher chance of falling out of school,” Goldberg said. “Sixth grade seems to be a real key place.”

At Cal State San Marcos, Goldberg's Learning Through the Arts course teaches future educators the same skill employed by Center Artes instructors.

During a recent class, Goldberg's students created puppet shows that they will present to fifth-graders.

“(Children) who are shy or reluctant to communicate, all of a sudden when it's a puppet in front of them, (they have) the ability to speak out through the puppet, to use verbal communication skills,” Goldberg said.

One group used puppets to demonstrate how the digestive system works and the effects of eating junk food. Maria Arias and her group incorporated the planets and the solar system into their presentation.

“It definitely helps,” Arias said of teaching primary subjects through art. “They remember because of the project, instead of just listening to the teacher talk and lecture. That's the way I learned.”

Jeanne Rojas, Arias' project collaborator, said, “It keeps the students engaged.”

Tiffany Libby and her group worked on a puppet show to provide a moral lesson about possessions.

“Everybody has different ways of thinking and learning,” Libby said. “It gets everyone involved.”

Center ARTES instructors sometimes require students to write an artist's statement, a task that employs critical thinking skills.

“A lot of schooling these days is so much about rote learning,” Goldberg said. “These kinds of skills, learning to communicate and think critically, you can't learn by rote.”

Incorporating the arts into lessons also allows teachers to view their students in a different light, Goldberg said. She recalled working with a San Marcos elementary school student who had been branded a class bully. His evocative poem about wanting to soar like an eagle changed her perception of him.

“It has broadened teachers' notions about who their kids are,” Goldberg said. “They see kids succeed who haven't been succeeding, (but) they also see kids who have been succeeding maybe doing things in a way that they've never seen before – both academically and interpersonally.”

Many of the students Center Artes works with are often the first in their family planning to attend college, Goldberg said. “Maybe the parents haven't been to college themselves to know how to prepare them,” she said. “This gives them the skills so that they'll be prepared ... to get into college.”

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