Weekly Media Roundup: May 16, 2018

After School Club Teaches Students Patience and Discipline (Tapinto.net, New Jersey)

The Korean martial art of Kumdo has made its way to a Camden afterschool program. Kipp Lanning Square Middle School students learn a lot more than simple fighting tactics from their sparring sessions – Kumdo also helps teach youths discipline, persistence, and patience. Matt George, P.E. instructor at KLMS, explained to Tapinto.net that the role of instructors is to “really harp on values, and how to have patience, and how to show grit — all those types of things.”

Hundreds Gather at the State Capitol to Protect After-School Programs (KTXL, California)

This week, hundreds of Californians rallied at the State Capitol to ensure that children continue to benefit from afterschool programs that serve roughly 860,000 students across the state. According to advocates, proposed federal budget cuts threaten to rob the state government of the funding it needs to keep these programs afloat. But students, advocates, and state lawmakers alike were determined to ensure that the doors to California’s afterschool programs remain open. “We have hope that some way, somehow we will get the money,” afterschool program advocate Nathan Houston told KTXL.

Lincoln-Douglas Students Learn About Art – and Life (Herald-Whig, Illinois)

At Lincoln Douglas Elementary School, art and culture collide in an hour-long afterschool program run by a local museum. Every week, children get to paint, draw or color in the style of a new famous artist from history, from Leonardo da Vinci to Henri Rousseau. The program allows children to explore both their critical thinking and creative skills while building relationships with their classmates. Second-grader Olivia summed up why she loves the program to the Herald-Whig: “My favorite thing to do is art. It helps me make friends.”

Bronx School Uses ‘Kid Rock’ After-School Program to Share Lessons About Foster Care (WPIX, New York)

The afterschool program Haven Kids Rock at Mott Haven Academy in the South Bronx gives a voice to the voiceless through music and drama. The music program is putting on an upcoming original show, “Unstoppable, the Musical,” that will explore the diverse stories of foster children, who make up more than a third of the school’s population. The program has allowed Mott Haven students to learn more about diversity, inclusion and empathy than they ever could in a classroom. “It’s a good way to see nothing’s impossible, you lost your parent, but you can still dream,” ninth grader Marangelic Glasthal told WPIX.