In order to graduate and get into college, all schools require specific courses and credits that students must earn. Here at Fuquay-Varina High School, examples of these necessary credits include passing all four years of English classes, one health/physical education course, and two foreign language courses.
With this diversity in required credits, schools should require an arts credit as well.
The objective of high school elective offerings are to allow students the opportunity to try out as many new things as possible and help in the discovery of new interests and skills.
With an array of so many different elective offerings just in the arts, such as technical theatre, sculpture and ceramics and dance, it would allow students a chance to explore possible interests and gain the life skills that the arts offer.
“Art gives people a new way to think about things,” said senior Madelyn Smith. “You have to learn to adapt in different ways and work with other people. It gives you new perspectives.”
While it’s true that many students don’t have any interest in the arts because they are more inclined to take S.T.E.M. or athletics-related electives, that doesn’t diminish the value that these courses offer to those who are willing to put effort into them.
Within arts courses, students learn valuable skills that can help them throughout their lives. Visual arts pushes students to think outside the box and adapt different historical perspectives and skills. The performing arts, which includes choral music, band, theatre arts, and dance, students learn collaboration, improvisation, and skills that allow them to express themselves creatively.
The arts are incredibly beneficial for advancing student perspectives. Through the close collaboration that many of the courses, specifically the performing arts, require, students engage with a diverse array of experiences and personalities. They learn to adapt to each other and share a creative space with a goal to succeed.
The arts are often more time consuming than other electives, requiring time dedicated to finishing art pieces at home, after school performances or memorizing lines. However, they create a space in which students are able to further develop their work ethic and time management skills as they balance their regular courses with unique ones that take extra time.
“I went to a middle school that didn’t have any arts programs and it made everything seem so statistical,” said Smith. “Coming here where the arts program is really good, it’s nice to express yourself in different ways.”
Schools should require students to take one elective course centered around either visual or performing arts. This will allow students the chance to broaden their perspectives, express themselves creatively, and facilitate meaningful collaborative life skills that will help them as they graduate and enter adulthood.
