Changing How We View the Arts

In 2012, study was done at Dartmouth testing the relationship between how the human brain perceives motion and how the brain perceives music. The researches designed a program that connects an animation of a ball and the movement to specific note intervals and varying dissonance, and students adjusted the animation until they found a movement and sound that they associated with a certain emotion. They then took their test to Cambodia, and found that even halfway across the world their results were almost identical.

In class and with college applications, we've talked a lot about personal voice: finding and establishing voice in our reading, our writing, our opinions. But what I feel we've failed to address is our voice as a collective whole. While I like being able to enrich our voice as an individual in the community, it's just as important to embrace a unified voice for our generation. We are a class of legal adults, and what are we known for? Being the generation that says "like" too often, that can't go more than an hour without some sort of technological stimulation (guilty)? We are the next generation of innovators and leaders, and we have to adjust to this society that is in an era never been seen before. And yes, it's crucial that we have these individuals to promote ideas, but our generation as a whole needs to be able to unify.

Our educational environment pushes a lot of emphasis on math and science. Project Lead the Way program! New innovators! Advancing our country! "What are you talking about? You'll use calculus every day for the rest of your life!" Yes, I realize the importance of jobs in science, technology, engineering, and math in our society. But it isn't simply the STEM programs that teach necessary skills through which to see the world. 

Our choral department has taken a serious hit with the recent transition to the block schedule. We are facing a freshman enrollment of 20 kids (as opposed to the usual 80). And why is this? Colleges want to see well-rounded kids and future employers want to see unique skill sets. So why are the arts being pushed away? The arts give a foundation of creativity that these innovation-centric jobs would not be able to thrive without.

With arts, we learn different approaches to solving problems, different ways to stretch our minds, different ways to see our world, our culture, ourselves. Exposure to the arts gives people creative mechanism through which to see the world. This exposure might make a creative thinker who, without a foundation in skills from the arts, never would have been able to change society. Particularly in this case, we see two completely opposite cultures unified through the way they think about music. If our brains, despite whatever differences we might have, are the same universally when it comes to perception, think of how many new doors that creates for future generations. (Doors that wouldn't have been open if it weren't for music, mind you.) We can connect intellectually, innovatively, and creatively on a global level. Perhaps this idea of a collective voice and collective identity may be exactly what our society needs to advance in the years to come.