When you were in high school, did you ever indulge in your school’s art program? Or perhaps your school didn’t have one. For many students across the nation, art is one of the most interesting and fun filled parts of school. The art department is a place where students can create, learn, and express themselves in new ways. But due to problems with school spending and budgets, many students are deprived from experiencing the large and creative world that the art department provides.
As a Fine Arts Major at Bridgewater State University, and future art teacher, this problem is devastating to me, as well as to thousands of students who are losing their school’s art department. The most aggressive threat against art in schools is the maldistribution of the school budget. What do I mean by this? I mean that the money coming into schools for each of its very individual and unique programs is being unevenly dispersed. In many cases, art is considered one of the least needed subjects in today’s schools, and due to the underrated importance of the art department, the budget is being given to other programs.
Many schools decide to give more money to sports and clubs, and usually for things that are unnecessary instead of the art department. In some cases, so much money is given to other departments that art is left with nothing and forced to shut down. Or in some cases, they are shut down in order to supply more money for sports and clubs. Something similar happened to my high school when I was a sophomore. My school’s art department didn’t have enough money for paper, so we resorted to using old books and maps being thrown away by the library. Many times, even in future years, I watched my art teachers use their paycheck from the school to buy the supplies that should have been provided. Is it fair to make a teacher use their paycheck to supply their classrooms with essentials that should have been covered by the budget?
Some people don’t seem to see why money should be spent on the art department. Many believe it doesn’t serve any true importance. One crucial reason that they are needed is that proficient art programs have been linked to better academic performance in students. Why is it that students get better grades when their schools have good art departments? It is speculated that art can be a large escape from main courses for many students, allowing them to have breaks from intense studying and anxiety/stress that many courses cause. Students with lower stress levels mean students who can get better grades. Along with better grades, the art department allows for students to learn, explore new ideas, build, and most of all, express themselves. The art students of today are the next designers, architects, movie makers, and much more. To deprive students of an art department is to deprive them of self expression and to deprive the future world of the next great creators.
