One thing I’ve noticed from going to a bigger high school is that people idolize high school sports.
Football is treated like a sacred event that shouldn’t be messed with.
There was a parade through the school on game days and a whole week was dedicated to the big rivalry game every year.
These sports are built so high up and the athletes are treasured by the community while the arts seem to go more unnoticed.
I was fortunate enough to go to a district with a good program.
I was able to take classes other people couldn’t, like journalism and drama classes.
However, the lack of support from the community and family can be hard on kids.
But this isn’t always the case, and it’s definitely not always the case with parents.
With a lot of families, there’s a very obvious divide between sports and arts.
Many parents will show up to every single football or basketball game but have no idea what play their other kid is in.
It’s not that they’re unsupportive of their kid, it’s that it’s not as exciting for them as the big game.
But how hard is it really to go to an art show or pick up a newspaper?
It honestly can be even easier than supporting an athlete.
Kids need to feel like their parents are proud of them.
Feeling like your parents don’t care about something you’ve worked really hard on is not a good feeling.
Arts are just as important to the world as sports are, and in some cases, arguably more.
If the arts didn’t exist, where would we be as a society?
If writing didn’t exist, how would you get your news?
Or read a book?
There would be no books or newspapers to read because even writing is considered an art.
Artists have changed the way we see the entire world and have even revealed huge scandals.
Without the arts, specifically journalism, things like Watergate wouldn’t have been exposed.
Bernstein and Woodward used their skills as journalists to eventually bring about the resignation of President Nixon.
What would you do for fun?
There’d be no museums to walk around or amusement parks like Disney World because even Walt Disney was an artist.
He created his characters, like Mickey Mouse, from scratch using drawings and stop animation.
None of that would exist without the arts, including the movies you love today.
The arts provide us with things that we take for granted every single day.
If parents don’t encourage their kids to pursue their passion for the arts, who will take over?
Who will become the next Disney or Da Vinci?
The world would become a very boring place, not to mention less informed and possibly even less progressive.
More traditional art, like paintings, also help society really consider things about the world they wouldn’t have otherwise.
Artists use their paintings to convey emotions that are too difficult to explain or understand otherwise.
They get the viewer to really consider what is going on in their own lives and things they don’t understand about the world.
Paintings are used to show the pain other people are going through and to help viewers understand the problems they don’t face.
It makes the world a better place. It helps people understand each other better and can bring people closer together.
The support of parents is very important so that things like this can keep happening.
Luckily, I personally have a very supportive family when it comes to the arts.
I’ve always been encouraged to do whatever I wanted and that’s part of the reason I am where I am today, still writing for a newspaper.
However, one person has always stood out and that is my grandpa.
Papa, thank you for reading absolutely every single article I have written.
Your constant support means so much to me.
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