A special thank you goes out to my former elementary school’s P.T.A. and the Good Works Foundation; without their generous, recurring support for many years they would not have had the Music Center Education Division art programs. Their funds paid for professional artists to come into classrooms and teach mime, music, sculpture, poetry, puppetry and theatre. Numerous studies have shown a direct connection between high student achievement and students immersed in art. Creativity and imagination spreads from art to writing to math to science to all aspects of a child's life.When I left there in 2005, the school's test scores had continually been rising over the past nine years. In fact, they had the greatest increase in test scores in the whole sub-district of 33 schools. And out of every elementary school in all of L.A.U.S.D., they had the second highest improvement in test scores. And out of every elementary school in Los Angeles County, including schools from Beverly Hills to San Marino, they were third highest in improvement.