First Year Writing Award: 1st Place, Informational - "The Arts"
by Fiona Bautista
The arts take part in everyone’s lives, in more ways than some may realize. It takes form in the nursery rhymes babies hear every day, on the car radio as people travel, as the movie on a big screen, or as the play a school in your town is doing. The arts surround us and we all happily consume the work being shared, yet there is still a stereotype in place that deems activities such as band, chorus, and drama unimportant and lame. People can find this in the life around them as well as in many texts, whether it be a movie, TV show, book, or video, and it is often a storyline that an audience can laugh at. The hard truth that must be faced is that although this stereotype can be entertaining, it has a much deeper impact on society than people realize. This stereotype shapes social norms and behaviors on more than just the screen. It shapes the social norms and behaviors of impressionable students from the beginning of their educational journey to adulthood. It can be seen in how students interact with one another to how school officials fund their extracurriculars. The arts are often deemed unworthy of attention because they are not viewed as essential as other subjects or activities, and at this point, these behaviors are doing more damage than good. Participating in performing arts provides many benefits for students and should be given much more credit in our educational system by displaying as much praise as they do for other activities and classes, as well as giving proper funding.
Students who participate in performing arts are able to experience many wonderful things and are given many amazing opportunities, but they often go unnoticed by our peers, contrasting the great amount of commendment given to other activities. Personally, I am one of the fortunate students who have been able to experience such things through band, chorus, a cappella, and theater. The ensembles that I have participated in have reached incredible milestones. Every single one of the groups humbly holds their achievements with grace and with pride, though in my experience, I have found that if you ask staff and students that are not part of the performing arts department, a likely trend is that most of them are unaware of any of these accomplishments. Oftentimes, those who do know about them are only aware because of social media posts shared by the students who are involved in the groups. If you were to compare this to the achievements of a sports team, you would easily find a shift in people’s responses. Schools tend to follow every step of the journey of a sports team, whether they are going on a trip, one of their athletes receives an award, if they win a game, or even when they lose a game. Their actions are often celebrated regardless of whether or not they brought home a victory because sports are viewed in much higher acclaim. Sports are viewed in such a way because it can be physically and mentally taxing and it takes self-discipline, hard work, perseverance, and responsibility. These are all completely valid and explain why sports teams deserve the recognition they receive, but these characteristics can all be applied to performing arts as well.
Participating in the performing arts has several benefits for students. On top of it being a fun way to pass time and be involved in the community, it also teaches kids life skills, boosts their confidence, and works as an outlet so they can express themselves, therefore improving their social lives. Along with that, “research reveals that students participating in school-based arts activity tend to identify more with their school and have improved academic buoyancy, life meaning and purpose, and self-esteem” (Mansour 242). Similarly to athletics, performing arts takes a lot of physical and emotional energy. With hours of rehearsal where students can be repeatedly dancing, marching, blocking movements, or running around, they will be exhausted. They work and move for prolonged periods of time and are often under a hot spotlight as they do so. Along with the physicality of performing, there is also a very strong emotional aspect of it. There are moments of extreme self-doubt, overwhelming pressure, school drama, and nerves. Students deal with their tired and aching bodies on top of their many emotions, and though it can be draining from time to time, they are able to learn the importance of resilience, hard work, and cooperation. That is because every single person involved in a production works towards the same goal. They all want to succeed in one way or another and for them, their love for performing provides a great sense of motivation to push through any adversity they may face on the way. With this, they are also able to build their confidence. Students are able to pride themselves in their hard work and their performance and learn how to trust their own ideas. Participating in performing arts can also impact students’ lives socially. During a personal interview with Omar Hernandez, a student in Salem High School’s class of 2020 as well as a very involved member of the performing arts department, he explains how different his life has become after going into performing. He says, “My life took a complete turn. I gained new friends and started to surround myself with new people who really helped me grow into the person I am today. It helped me push myself in many ways and I learned a lot about myself and my own capabilities….I have a lot to thank performing arts for.”
To many students, the importance of performing is clear as day, yet school systems still do not acknowledge these activities the way that they should. It can be seen in how little funding the performing arts department is given. In my experience, students and teachers in the department have always had to pay for things like trips, merch, and equipment, either out of their own pockets or through vigorous fundraising. This is not at all the case for other activities, though. When asked about her experiences regarding funding for performing arts compared to sports, Lianne Goodwin, the director for both the choral department and the drama club for the last 13 years, bluntly states, “I have never seen it equal.” For example, the Salem High School concert band was invited to play at the prestigious Carnegie Hall in New York City to perform in their concert of just a select few high schools across the country. It was an extremely expensive trip where we would have stayed in New York for three days and each student had to pay about $100 to $250 monthly for the five months leading up to our trip. Those monthly payments--which are already a great amount of money--were less than the originally planned payments due to the unbelievable kindness of a few random citizens in Salem. People donated what they could to ensure that we could afford to get to Carnegie Hall, therefore easing some of the pressure that was on the families of the students every month. On top of that, the band also had numerous fundraisers starting in the summer leading up to our trip. We worked endlessly to get the money that was needed but if you were to compare the band’s experience to specific sports teams, you would see a huge difference. Many sports teams are able to attend a week- long trip to Disney World every single year, as well as receiving special merch throughout their season, with the majority of these expenses being paid for by the city and school.
Though this gap in funding is a general issue for the performing arts department, it has never been a burning issue for Cynthia Napierkowski, the head music director for Salem Public Schools and band director at Salem High School for over 30 years. She explains that she has “never let lack of funding get in [her] way.” Instead, she simply accepted the challenge and “worked to fundraise for whatever we needed. We needed new chairs in the band room, new music stands, new marching band uniforms, and a SmartBoard, so we just did it ourselves.” Napierkowski is extremely hardworking and passionate and she always makes sure to set an example for her students. She works to show them that any obstacle can be overcome as long as we do not give up. Though this provides a valuable lesson for young kids, the lack of funding serves as an unnecessary challenge that could easily be avoided.
Some people may defend the funding gap by arguing that the school’s money should primarily go to the core subjects and sports because “arts subjects are viewed as ‘soft’ and dispensable to key student learning outcomes” (Mansour 240). The core subjects--English, mathematics, social studies, and science--are argued to play a much bigger role in our day to day lives and the futures of students. Obtaining a good understanding of these subjects can strengthen your abilities to move further in any career and that is commonly what people will strive for in their future. Those who support most of the funding to go to athletics may bring up health benefits. It is common knowledge that exercise is good for your health and participating in sports requires one to regularly move their body in a way that can help in many aspects of life. These arguments are absolutely correct but only to a certain extent. The core subjects and athletics do, in fact, play a huge part in educational and life success, but so does performing arts, therefore these arguments do not eliminate the arts from the debate of who does and does not deserve the funding. Despite the “curriculum marginalization, research demonstrates that participation in the creative and performing arts can lead to a range of academic benefits [that include] improvements in achievement, motivation, engagement, time spent on homework, positive educational aspirations, and tertiary aspirations” (Mansour 240). Students who participate in the arts learn several skills in their activities that they are able to apply to life both onstage and off. The arts teach them the skills necessary to succeed in life, just as the common core classes do. Performing does more than help develop basic life skills, though. It is scientifically proven to be beneficial for the human brain. Neuroscientists closely monitored the brain to examine how it reacts to music and they found that “while listening to music engages the brain in some pretty interesting activities, playing music is the brain’s equivalent of a full-body workout…. [it] engages practically every area of the brain at once, especially the visual, auditory, and motor cortices” (Collins). Participating in the arts basically exercises the brain in very impressive ways. It engages the brain visually as you read music and process the notes, dynamics, key signature, and more. It engages the auditory cortex by staying aware of the music around you and the sounds you create, making sure you sound right, and are blending with the other musicians if there are any. It engages the motor cortex because you must react quickly to what is happening around and in front of you. You must change your hand position at this note, push more air out to increase your volume, adjust your embouchure--or mouth positioning on the instrument--to fix your tuning. All of these things are happening in just a matter of milliseconds. This level of engagement of the brain is limited to only musicians--“the artistic and aesthetic aspects of learning to play an instrument are different from any other activities studied” (Collins)--and to no surprise. Performing arts is hard work and it pays off in just about every single way.
Performing impacts the lives of kids in a great way, but it is not just constrained to their time as students. These lessons and skills can be taken with them for the rest of their lives, whether they want to work in the field of performing or not. Despite this, schools often turn away from performing arts, disregarding its many benefits and its importance to many students’ lives because of the common belief that it is not as essential as other activities and classes such as sports and the core subjects. Schools must learn how to properly acknowledge the arts by giving it as much funding and attention as they would other things. By doing so, they can build a more welcoming and inclusive school environment, which in the long run, is the most important thing schools should strive to achieve.
Instructors: Theresa DeFrancis and Alexandra Kirby