Why Art Credit Requirements should be Reduced

Nicole Caulfield's classroom for Ceramics and Jewelry, 1126. Image by Mingze Shi.

In my personal experience, if you take an instrument series—band, orchestra, etc.—it guarantees you successive years of art. But if you do not, you’ll likely realize that the required art credits are a lot. For many that really value artistic experiences and find them interesting, BHS has a variety of these courses at your disposal. But for those who want to take a lot of STEM classes (physics, math, biology) like me, requiring two credits seems excessive, especially when we only need one CTE credit.

We already only have two elective periods to work with, as students must take four core classes and generally one for language. We also have to account for 1.5 credits of PE, and some dedicated students take two science courses at the same time. Why force us to take two whole years of art when a lot of our interests lie elsewhere?

“It is not very necessary for high schoolers because it is not essential to careers unless you directly go into art,” Siyuan Wu, a BHS junior, says.

Understandably, a lot of students are proponents of requiring art.

“CTE is easier to get replaced by AI or something than art, so we need to train our students to be multifaceted workers,” Zhuoheng Zhang, a BHS senior, says. He already has a profusion of art credits.

But I believe that AI is not something that will just take over CTE, but rather a tool to complement it. For example, Christopher George’s Special Topics in Computer Science class already allows uses of AI because of its necessity in real world computer engineering.

Moreover, many courses, like culinary, anatomy, and automotive technologies, are not related to the high-tech that we often think of. Others, like accounting, economics, and computer science, can be crucial no matter what industry you decide to go into. They are even helpful for daily life, such as in fixing cars, cooking, making investment, and managing small businesses. These courses, unlike many art ones, are not tailored towards just one field, like an instrument or form of visual art.

Of course, the world would be very boring and dystopian should everyone only know hard skills and no creativity. I also realize that art often provides a sense of tranquility and entertainment into school life even if we don’t pursue it professionally. But then, why should we require two times as many art credits as CTE? So while I understand art is important for enrichment and broadening skill sets, we should arrive at a fairer compromise: I propose requiring 1.5 credits for both CTE and art.