Standpoints differ regarding Carlmont’s required art classes; some students admit that art classes ignite their artistic way of thinking, while others view such classes as a mere waste of time.
Carlmont High School, like every other high school, has graduation requirements. One requirement is that students take one year of a fine arts course such as Graphic Design, Concert Band, or Digital Photography. The fine arts requirement is meant to allow students to express themselves through various methods, whether music or painting. These required classes are argued by students to be both beneficial and harmful for students’ high school experience.
According to EdSource, visual and performing arts can engage students in learning, encourage collaboration, promote creative thinking, and more. Arts education is critical to students’ academic success, providing them with various skills they would not have learned without the art classes.
Many different students have mixed feelings about the requirement for various reasons.
For some, it is because they have simply heard of others struggling in or disliking the class.
“I have a few friends that strongly dislike art and are struggling in those classes, affecting their GPA. For example, I have one friend in art who is struggling with keeping an A because the grading is objective, and he just can’t create the themes,” said Zachary Robinson, a Zachary Robinson sophomore at Carlmont.
Others, such as Carlmont senior Michael Connolly, have grown to love the classes they were once forced to take to graduate. Connolly went into his first year of the art class with no intention of doing it again, but he later learned that he enjoyed the class.
“Without the arts requirement, I guarantee I never would have taken Digital Photography and hence would have never found out how much I liked it,” Connolly said. “I took Digital Photography for my arts requirement, and initially, I was definitely just doing it to fulfill my arts requirement, but I ended up finding it fun and decided to take a second year of it.”
Like Connolly, Carlmont senior Bailey Fox has also enjoyed taking an art class and believes these courses can open students to new opportunities and people.
“I think taking an art can help people find other things they are passionate about. Because, for me, if I hadn’t taken the Drama class, I wouldn’t have figured out that I wanted to continue theater as a career,” Fox said.
According to the National Art Education Association, over the past decade, many states and school districts have implemented more units in the graduation requirements, mandating students to take more years of art.
As requirements for art classes remain, students continue to have varying experiences, from a struggling grade to discovering a new passion.
“Being in drama has led me to meet people who have become my best friends, and it is one of the few places where I know I can be myself without being judged,” Fox said.
