“Arts education aids students in skills needed in the workplace: flexibility, the ability to solve problems and communicate, the ability to learn new skills, to be creative and innovative, and to strive for excellence.”
– Joseph M. Calahan, Director of Cooperate Communications, Xerox Corporation
Beginning as a student in high school I have been a constant participant in the performing arts. My fondest memories from those days include performing in a number of different plays, school assemblies, and in the Sears Drama Fest of Ontario. I made some of my best friends through being a drama student. I have gone on to study drama at the university level and have enjoyed it so much that I have dedicated my life to teaching this subject by making it my primary teachable subject at the secondary level. I continue to participate in community theatre and my dream is to become a full time drama teacher and help my students realize their potentials in this subject as I had. I attribute my public speaking ability, out-going personality, and so many more extrovert qualities to my success in the subject. I owe a lot to the performing arts. It’s this passion for the subject that has me wondering all of the time exactly why this and other arts subjects are always on the chopping block when it comes to spending reviews.
I have been reading the news for over a year now about the impending doom that arts education is facing in many countries. As a result of the constant threat of a continuing global recession governments have been cutting back on their public funding to ease pressure on their national debts and try to bring their economies in line. It started in Canada last year and in England as recently as two weeks ago when Lord Browne’s budget cut report was made public. It seems that the arts always get the short end of the stick. Why is this? Governments like to say that it is an elitist activity that the general public can’t relate to or can’t connect to. Others might think that the arts are good as a distraction but when the going gets tough and cuts need to be made it’s just a fun and fancy free activity that isn’t needed in society. I’m here to tell you that it is.
Let’s turn our focus away from the professional side of the arts and look deeper into the arts in education. Most schools these days provide facilities and elective courses in three main streams of the arts: drama, music, and visual art. They are generally seen as “bird” courses that can be used to fill in a school schedule and to get an easy credit by getting up and moving around or drawing some weird shapes on a canvas. I’ve seen these stigmas take place as a student and as a teacher in a drama classroom. Some students come in thinking it’s going to be fun and games and realize just how much a challenge these courses present to them. They are asked to bare their souls for others, to express themselves creatively in a presentational format, to work intimately with others in creating a performance, and to accept criticism from not only their teacher but their peers as well to improve and refine their abilities. What other subjects in schools can boast these facts? The arts promote public performance and speaking ability, problem-solving, teamwork, creativity, and self-expression. I believe all of these are intrinsic to producing someone who can be successful in whatever path they choose after graduation.
I realize that the focus of education in both Canada and the UK is English, Science, and Math. These subjects are very important to promote skills in basic everyday life as well as in many of the occupations that are out there. They are essential components to the arts themselves and I am not condemning or belittling their importance in education. I am only saying that I believe that to create a truly rounded student we need to arts and what they provide to compliment those basic skills learned in the bigger subjects. Even considering a student entering a post-secondary education, never mind what career they’ll eventually choose, intellectual traits will only get you halfway. A person needs to have those essential social traits as well to interact effectively with colleagues, peers, and administrators. Making the arts just as important (in my opinion) to the government mandated English, Science, and Math courses.
The arts are doomed to face this sort of discrimination as long as they around. The abstractness of their composition makes it difficult for some to understand the true importance that lies beneath the surface: skills and abilities that will complement those developed through other courses. So, the next time a student, friend, or colleague approaches you about a course they’re thinking of taking or asking for advice; point them towards the arts. They may just discover something they’ve been looking for or find something they never knew was inside them. They just might thank you one day.
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