Across the country, we see the continuous decrease of non academic and sport related programs in secondary education. Whether it be art, language, music, or even architectural designing, there is something either being underfunded or straight up cut from the curriculum.
I know I’ve preached this before, but I cannot stress this fact enough; Math, Science, and Literature are not the only important subjects in school. Some people are not wired for that, per say. There are some people that excel at music and language that very rarely get to shine because of school boards not seeing these subjects as important.
From personal experience, I can say that both students and teachers care about these pushed aside subjects. People need to realize that the arts should be valued equally as much as the “main academics”. The fact that there are people in the world that are are looked down upon in society because of low math scores is astounding. That student might be an incredible musician or artist, but the world may never know.
There is a school district in my home area that recently proposed cutting its music program, and many people I know, both from the district and outside of it, were outraged. I personally knew some musicians that graduated from this school and they started a petition to bring the program back.
Under-representation and under-funding of the arts is a serous issue in the world. People need to see this and then see how valuable these skills are. Just because it’s not a “mainstream” course doesn’t mean that it’s not important.