In my last post, I mentioned that a school district near mine had thought of getting rid of the music and art programs, just to save money. I just wanted to talk about this in more detail. I have first hand experience in music and theater programs and they were absolutely fantastic for me. Through my high school orchestra alone, I was able to make some amazing friends. These friends stayed with me through the years, even though we only saw each other maybe 3 times a year. I was able to form friendships with amazing people, some of which even became some of my best friends. I also learned to express myself through music. I found songs, both old and new, that I fell in love with. My orchestra class unlocked a passion in me that I never knew existed.
My point here is that music is not just an extra curricular to some people. For some people, it’s a way of expressing themselves when they have no other way to express themselves. It’s an outlet for people that aren’t academically inclined. Just because a student is bad at math doesn’t mean that the student is a bad student. People all have talents, some have scientific talent, but some also have musical or artistic talent. Students need to be able to express themselves and not go through a school day upset because they go to class after class feeling sub-par about themselves.
Schools need to start realizing that “core courses” are not the only important courses. Schools need to think about the student body and not just money. School boards need to look at arts and music like they’re the same as STEM.
Kids are told to follow their dreams, but those very same kids are discouraged when their dreams conflict with the social norm that “the world needs more engineers” etc. If we, as a nation, are going to tell kids that they should do what they love, or that they should follow their dreams, then we need to make an effort to help them follow those dreams, not hinder their progress.
