In light of the loss of the choir program at YRHS, we are seeing another case of an arts program getting cut. In this case, it could be an enrollment issue rather than one of funding, choir is easily the cheapest music program you can run since you don’t have to buy instruments, but it’s still an arts program that’s going away. It is a reminder that the arts themselves tend to be the first to go whenever something needs to be trimmed from the budget or there is a conflict with scheduling or otherwise. They tend to be viewed as the easy sacrificial lamb.
There are plenty of examples of this, whether on a local level or internatioanally. Saskatchewan’s scrapping of the film tax credit is still a sore spot for film producers years later, arts funding is almost always limited and tends to be the first thing on the chopping block in a budget shortfall. A small town school is more likely to have a football team than a school band, and if there’s one class that isn’t offered it tends to be an art one.
Part of the problem is attendance, schools are naturally going to want to offer classes that students need above classes that are optional, and the optional classes are going to be the ones that kids regard as cool. Sports are, for whatever reason, the activity that tends to get the most attention at a high school level, even if it’s not something that all kids are necessarily interested in participating in.
Pop culture has its own part in the blame. Plenty of entertainment positions the kids that are into the arts as the weird ones. There are countless films and television shows where students are ashamed to be acting in plays, sketching pictures or singing in a choir. Sometimes this entertainment positions this secret passion as a good thing overall, but the damage is that before that point, kids are told to see an interest in the arts as something to be ashamed of, or something that has to be hidden if they want to be seen as socially acceptable.
For example, dance programs might be big in the city, but they always struggle to attract male participants, and in spite of the benefits to young boys of getting involved in a dance program. A young male athlete could probably benefit from the training and increased flexibility that comes with participating in dance, but they’re not going to do it, because it’s not a traditionally male activity. And why not? It may be partially due to it being a female dominated activity already, but if we push the idea that young men shouldn’t be interested in dance, or there is something wrong with them if they are, they will internalize it and not participate. Even entertainment focused on dance tends to push the “look you’re surrounded by girls” angle rather than it being an inherently valuable experience. A young quarterback who participates in dance might actually have an advantage, but he’s not going to do it because it’s not viewed as cool.
It’s really the same for other arts. Choir is a team activity and something a lot of kids will enjoy. It’s also something other kids will find helpful in their life, and not just in the value of expressing themselves through art. They have to get on stage and perform in front of both friends and strangers. They have to learn from what the people on either side of them are doing. They have to learn how to use their voice, which could help if they’ve got other issues when it comes to speaking. A choir program is useful, even if the kids don’t go on the make music a prioirty in the rest of their life – though if they do, they have an advantage, because think of how many famous recording artists talk about getting their start in their local choir. But they struggle to get participation, it does not matter. The best program in the world can’t survive if nobody participates.
Instead of blaming the school for cutting the program, we need to look at what we’ve done that have made us consider arts something that we can lose without consequence. As a society, we need to stop pushing arts to the corners and considering it less important than other activities. We need to quit depicting it as something weird or unexpected for someone to be interested in, and instead just make it an accepted and celebrated part of our every day lives. Arts can thrive if we stop trying to push it to the corner and instead just make it an enjoyable and rewarding part of our every day lives. If we don’t, we could lose more than just the school choir.
