By: Morgan Topol
In my 9th grade English class, my teacher tasked us with a “protest project.” The goal of the protest project was for us to create a piece of art with a meaningful message behind it. I chose to focus my project around the importance of arts education, and more specifically, why funding for arts programs in public schools shouldn’t be cut.
When I decided that I wanted to center my project around this, I went to band class and asked everyone to write on a piece of paper what the arts programs meant to them. I then collected these pieces of paper, narrowed them down to what would fit on a canvas, and ultimately created the piece of art seen above.
It wasn’t hard to come up with this idea. I have memories of us bitterly joking in the band room about how we needed new instruments while the football team got new uniforms. My high school was also a STEM school, which meant even in band, we had to write a STEM-related paper every semester. The arts, it seemed, were almost always put on the back-burner.
Even with all of this being said, I’m incredibly fortunate to have had access to fine arts programs at all. State records show that in 2018, nearly 30% of public school students in Oklahoma went to a school with no fine arts classes. This, unfortunately, is not shocking – arts programs are often first to be cut when schools have financial struggles because the arts are not tested subjects.
Although my high school, at the broader level, is a STEM school, the digital media program that my younger brother participates in is a STEAM program. Schools may also want to consider connecting the arts with academic subjects that are unlikely to face budget cuts to ensure arts education remains available to students.
The interdisciplinary nature of STEAM programs can be very fruitful. Dancers, for example, bring a useful perspective to the field of robotics because of their understanding of how the body moves. At the Boston Arts Academy, students explored the arts through their computer science classes, leading to one project that examined the link between John Coltrane and quantum physics.
Sure, maybe the value of arts education can’t always be quantified through standardized testing. But let me assure you, the life changing benefits of arts education do exist. Take it from some of my former classmates:
“The arts have truly saved my life. In some of my lowest times, drawing, acting and especially band have brought me back on my feet and given my life purpose. I have made so many friends because of it, I don’t know what I would be without it.”
“The arts programs have made my life in both high school and middle school so much better. It gave me something to look forward to each day. Especially this year, thanks to marching band. It opened doors for me and I made a ton of friends. Without it, my life would be very different in a bad way. If sports kids feel this way, why aren’t sports also cut from school programs?”
“Band is a very important part of my life. It gives me something to look forward to everyday at school. Band is a fantastic opportunity for students to creatively participate in school activities and funding for band and the arts should not be cut. Band is a perfect place for me to enjoy and excel at something.”
“The arts are as important as any other educational subject, both for educational value and psychological value. Music brings people together all around the world and brings happiness and emotion wherever it is. Music has changed my life because of the joy it brings to me, to others, and the joy that others bring to me.”
“If my school was cutting the arts programs I would honestly consider a transfer. Having been in these programs for four years now, I can’t imagine my life without them. I’ve had the time of my life because of them and if these schools haven’t noticed how much fun and joy is evoked from these programs, I’ll say it loud and clear for them: whether it be band, chorus, art, etc., the arts are the most worthwhile thing to spend on.”