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Show RUGS Of THJEo 4 magazine JESSICA JULIAN/STAFF WRITER j.julian@chronicle.utah.edu n a Utah elementary school, students waited patiently for math and English. However, in Bettina Oesch's class, Navajo rugs and stories are scattered all over. A Westminster senior in elementary education, Oesch designed such dynamics to encourage students to engage and interact with each other during lessons. "I am practicing to be a teacher, and so having observed my mentor teacher's classroom, I realized that there are a lot of Navajo Indian students in the classroom," Oesch says about the inspiration behind her lesson plans. "I wanted to build an inclusive whole-group instruction where everyone can connect to the material and feel included:' The issue of incorporating art into education has lead to debates in recent years. "It is very important to let children dabble in art from an early age, as this will be the first experience they will have with creating something:' says Jeff Bassett, a U film student. Despite a surge in support for art integration, Utah public schools still focus on emphasizing math and reading in the classroom. "We know that art is such a powerful medium for kids for learning, and right now because of the high stakes testing, a lot of times it is forgotten, and so the only way we make sure that it happens is by integrating it into the other content areas," says |