Last week at a meeting with the principal of the high school where I teach, I found out that photography would no longer be offered after this semester. Growing numbers of students combined with budget cuts across the board results in 92 positions being eliminated, and larger classes for everyone. Expensive electives such as photography are the first to go. I was stunned nevertheless.
I was slow to understand the calculus behind the numbers the principal was laying out across the conference table. Photography had always been one of the most popular and successful courses offered. They had built a state-of-the-art darkroom at one end of the department, but later banned its use because of supervisory concerns stemming from an incident at another school. We were relegated to a tiny, dilapidated darkroom with inadequate ventilation annexed onto a classroom with a revolving door that had holes and was off its track. Through several summer renovations in the wing of our building, the door never got replaced. Still, the darkroom was in use every lunch hour and every available day after school. There were plans to repurpose the darkroom into a computer lab for digital photography. Measurements were taken and plans were made to do the work over Christmas vacation, but when we came back the darkroom was still there. When further budget cuts made the cost of film and chemicals for the year prohibitive, we began the switch to digital for the second semester. With only one student computer and my computer hooked up to our new Smartboard, we began critiqueing everyone's best work on the large screen. All five of my classes saw the entire assignment and voted on the overall "best shot". New stars began to emerge.
Now just when I had completed the transfer of all our assignments to digital photography and was sure every student was on board, I was called to the principal's office to discuss classes for the next year. I had been excited to show him some of our new work. But something I was not aware of had already taken shape. Not only were they eliminating photography as an elective, but they needed the space itself. Our room is to be demolished, along with the darkroom, to make way for a new science classroom. The perfect combination of science and mathematics that is photography was written out of the curriculum.
And that is why I momentarily had a brain freeze when asked if I had any thoughts or comments. I could think of none then, but I can now: Yes, photography is expensive. But hands-on education is expensive. Next year they will have a two person Art Department, and I will be looking for a job. It was beautiful while it lasted.
