I have been acting and doing musical theater since I was 8 years old. I never thought of doing anything else until this year when I was talking to my dad about college. I really wanted to study musical theater as a major while studying law as my minor. I was just thinking out loud so things might change down the round, but my dad said I should make law my major instead because there is barely any chance of making it into the arts. I know he meant well, but really, the arts are all about creativity and true expression. Isn’t it enough to have that one thing that separates you from a robot? It is so much more than having a good life and a lot of money.
If you didn’t have the arts, the one thing that humans need to express their lives and what they need to be a unique person would be gone.
When it comes to the point where budget cuts need to be made in schools, the arts are the first thing to go.
According to Christine Armario of the Huffington Post, The percentage of elementary schools with a visual arts class declined from 87 to 83 percent. In drama, the drop was larger, from 20 percent to 4 percent in the 2009-10 school year
Why would you take away a type of outlet, a way for students to express themselves away. If you give a child many different ways to express themselves, then they will get stronger in other academic areas.
According to the Americans for the Arts website, “if young people participate in the arts for at least three hours, three days a week for a year [they] are 4 times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement.”
If you give a kid well rounded opportunities to succeed, then they will succeed.
All through my elementary years, I was taught songs to help me remember my multiplication tables. I love to sing, and I’m really good at math. I still remember the easy little jingles to the tune of Happy Birthday and Old McDonald. I’m not going to lie, these songs have helped me so many times. I’m a freshman now and I still use them!
The arts help me in even achieving to do my school work, to actually get it done and be a good student because I’m in the school muscial. Their policy (and also my mom’s policy about any musical I’m in) is if you get lower than a certain grade point average, than you’re out of the musical. This policy really makes me work hard to get all my work done and try my best in school so I can do something I love.
No kid wants to be stuck in classroom all day doing math and science. Especially at this age expression is valued to a lot of people. There is nothing like getting to have a moment to sing, dance, and draw your heart out. I just don’t understand why you would get rid of something that is proved to help people do better in the sciences! We can’t just get rid of the arts if we want a well rounded and successful country.
