Creative Art Classes

I.
Every year, it is painful to see art and music teachers begging their students to pay just a little more than the material fee, saying that it is donation to the school. They always resort to bribing the students with extra credit given to only those who paid it within the first two weeks, and even then majority of the students do not pay. Sometimes, even with the meager donations they get from outside, the school cannot fund the course and end up cutting them. As an art major, I feel concerned and irritated that every year students of every level of education face less and less opportunities to take creative art classes. It seems logical to take Science, Technology, English, and Math classes, or STEM classes for short, taking into consideration …show more content…
They are just as important to students as English and Math classes are. Although the person on my right might say some other reason, my reason to be in art class is that it is the only class that I feel comfortable in. It is the only place where I can think the most, work efficiently and can do anything I want, as much as I want, without consequences and reprehension. It is the place of my passion and dedication and it always feel insulting when someone with no experience with art say it is a waste of time and space. But how do my favorite course affect other students who don’t consider themselves as an artist? What benefits do they get out of art classes? Not to mention, how much do the budget cuts affect art and music classes, and how do they affect the students in the long …show more content…
Major colleges and universities across the United States have cut a portion of their Art and Music programs and many courses suffered from the lack of funding. There were complaints about the inability of building or renovating art museums, theaters, and music halls where students can exhibit their work. Due to the insufficient budget, some classes even resorted to bake sales to gather as much funding as possible. I remembered seeing my classmates from Palos Verdes Peninsula High School doing candy or chocolate sales, but my art class never had to go around to collect funds from other students. So out of curiosity, I decided to interview my high school art teacher. It turned out that her classes can survive the school year on the materials fee paid at the start of the year, and whatever the collected money cannot buy, she buys it using the money from her own wallet. She also mentioned how fortunate the high school is located in a city where the parents can afford to pay the material fee and easily donate to fund a class for a