Saving the Arts

The entire class was stymied. While the math problem that rooted us was no longer than a few lines, the silence that hung in the air in face of its incomprehensibility felt like it lasted longer than an hour. "Well?" Mr. Wolfson’s inquisitive voice temporarily removed my feeling of apprehension. I sat there, unsure of what to do. I looked at the student to my left, who shrugged her shoulders at me. At last, Mr. Wolfson delivered us back onto track by shouting hoarsely, "Just draw a graph!"Mr. Wolfson told our Math 420 class that day that one of the greatest problems he faced teaching math students was the reluctance of students to draw graphs. It was not this statement that provoked my interest as much as it was what he said following it, when he offered an explanation to his personal predicament, something along the lines of "Kids these days are not confident in what they draw. Remember those art classes we used to have every day? We need those at Exeter, then maybe you would all know how to do this problem or at least know how to attempt to do this problem."However literal or meaningful he meant that statement to be, the arts at Exeter have definitely lost their potential value. In this specific case, my math teacher is referring to the visual arts, but the performing arts have also become something shoved off into the corner of our academic lives. This shift is reflected in the way that we talk about these classes. Here at Exeter, grades in classes like ceramics, photo and other miscellaneous art classes have become synonymous with what otherwise in other classes is the ever-elusive A. Whether or not this has to do with the interpretive grading nature of art is still up for debate, but the very perception of these classes as "booster" classes brings to question their real value.The study of the arts plays a vital role in intellectual development; after all, that is why there are required credits for both music and visual arts classes. While the old adage goes "Art makes you smart," the function of the arts runs beyond the overly-repeated correlation between the arts and good grades. Drama arts force you to exit your comfort zone and to express yourself in front of a large crowd of people. Musical arts promote perseverance, expand the capacity of your memory and sometimes simply give you a sense of achievement. Visual arts probe your imagination past their wildest dreams and allows you to establish confidence in your own work and in creating your own work.After a few, quick series of art classes and weekly music lessons, many students will end up spending the last two years of their Exeter experience devoid of a consistent exposure to the arts. To us, the arts seem like something that is simply lovely, but not essential; and that makes sense because we live, as students, in a society ingrained with standardized test scores and core curriculums.Especially at Exeter, however, the external benefits that the arts bring should not overshadow the arts themselves. It’s easy to say that we should all engage in painting more because it increases our cognitive abilities, and while it’s true that there are many benefits, there are, at the same time, many students and adults out there who do art for art’s sake. The students who take Art 444, and the ones who ceaselessly spend days and weeks to finish their projects, are people that truly love art and have a passion for it.Where have all those childhood art classes gone? I can only assume lost in a time when I was unafraid to try and draw myself with crayons and absent in a time when I dread hearing the sound of the conjuncted words "self-portrait." The arts are a brilliant way to promote and bring about numerous benefits, and to do that consistently, we have to keep up with the arts consistently.Pablo Picasso once said, "Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist as he grows up."