By Cassie Lajeunesse, Campus Carrier Copy Editor
Recently, Wells Fargo distributed an ad campaign for a “teen financial education day” that caused a lot of controversy in the world of social media. The ads featured pictures of smiling teenagers measuring substances and building machines. They looked very happy and excited about science. This was not the issue.
The issue of this ad campaign was the captioning. One caption read “A ballerina yesterday. An engineer today. Let’s get them ready for tomorrow.” The other read “An actor yesterday. A botanist today. Let’s get them ready for tomorrow.”
I first saw this ad on my Facebook feed, and I was more than a little disturbed by the message it seemed to convey. As a life-long musician and lover of the arts, I was saddened and concerned that this company seemed to be suggesting that participation in the arts is something that we should be steering teens away from. As far as I’ve seen and experienced, participation in the arts can be extremely rewarding, especially for young adults.
According to The Identity Project, an organization that promotes integration of the arts into education, there are many benefits to an arts education. These include increased potential for leadership roles, teamwork and interpersonal skills, self-awareness and self-reliance. The Arts Education Partnership lists even more benefits, including creativity and problem solving. I have personally experienced and witnessed all of these throughout my participation in the arts.
When I was younger, I was very shy. I barely wanted to speak to people, much less perform in front of them. Because my family was very involved in music, I was in choir from a young age. At first, it was just something fun to do. But looking back, I realize that being in choir helped me build my confidence, as well as many other skills. I was encouraged to audition for solos, which helped me become comfortable in front of a crowd.
Throughout high school, I held various leadership positions in chorus that allowed me to develop teamwork and communication skills. I also learned the importance of commitment. I’ve heard so many choir directors say that the entire sound of a choir is changed if one person is missing. In a group setting like this, students learn the importance of working with others to create something. Singing in a choir, playing in a band or performing in a play requires communication, teamwork, empathy and people skills that can’t always be fostered in a regular classroom environment.
Research from the Arts Education Partnership (AEP) shows that involvement in the arts can also have a positive effect on students academically. Students who are involved in drama develop a better understanding of language skills. Studies have shown a correlation between music and high math scores on the SAT, because of the mathematical elements of composition and musical form. Participation in any form of arts education has been shown to increase critical and creative thinking skills, as well as problem solving skills.
My personal experiences greatly affected me emotionally, as well as cognitively. The AEP cites research which shows that “middle school students who participated in drama and visual arts based programs had fewer emotional and behavioral problems than comparison students.” The ability to express themselves gives students an identity and gives them “a stronger confidence in their ability to do things well,” the AEP reported.
Music has been such a huge part of my life, and it has shaped who I am as a person. It has allowed me to find my voice, not only in song, but as an independent human. In my time in choir, I learned invaluable leadership skills. My participation in music allowed me to overcome a lot of the shyness that I dealt with as a child. Arts education can be the vital difference between success and difficulty as a student, especially for children in early stages of development. The important skills that are developed through arts education are too valuable to be dismissed as a valid part of teen education.