Why is VAPA required?

I’ll be honest, at some point in life I also thought having requirements such as art classes and Career Technical Education (CTE) classes were useless for certain students of CVHS. Although now that I think about it, CTE and art classes benefit students in many ways that students don’t realize. They could gain so much knowledge from it and learn useful skills that they will most likely look back on and use in their future careers.  

That being said, I’ve grown a lot since I thought these electives were useless, and I think it is vital for kids to at least try engaging themselves in art classes or CTE classes. Not only does it give them a broader look at the world itself, but it also dives deeper into their mind, opening new perspectives.

I spoke to our very own CVHS ceramics teacher, Jennifer Jervis. Jervis states, “Art classes benefit students because they get to do something different than they would do in an academic class, and it exercises a different part of their brain.”

Disregarding if a student is a good artist or not, art is an ideology in which a person grows from influence. Not everyone understands it at first, I am one of those people. Three years after taking my first art class, I have fallen in love with it. I doubt I would be the same person I am today without art.

As Jervis and I spoke, the conversation slowly veered off topic, and we spoke about a study that showed the importance of art and the effect that it has on students. Scientists followed the same students from elementary school to high school, only a handful of students who stayed in art classes, and used the creative side of their brain ended up doing better in school. Those students even ended up having a better mentality and understanding of themselves.

Of course not every high schooler is the same and skill sets vary from student to student. Before you say that art classes shouldn’t be required and it takes away time from where you could be doing other things, try reconsidering the benefits of art. How does it affect your peers and maybe one day, how could it affect you?