Requirements should allow performing option for those who prefer
Hands down, it is one of my favorite classes this semester. As someone who did drama in high school, I enjoy learning about the art of theater and how it impacts culture. However, when it came to picking a course to take as my fine arts credit requirement, theatre appreciation was not my first choice.
I wanted to take an acting class. Acting was such a big part of my high school life, and even though I knew I had to abandon it in college to focus on my academic major, I was hoping that some component of my major coursework would include taking an acting class. Sadly, this is not the case.
And this is true for many majors that I have explored like business and nursing. A fine arts requirement is a component of the curriculum, but an appreciation class is required rather than a performance class.
This standard makes no sense to me, and it overall leads to believe if a fine arts class is a degree component for any major, that class should be able to be either appreciation or performance.
The arts are fantastic. They expose us to culture and sophistication; an appreciation class only exposes its students to this component of the arts.
However, performing fine arts brings out confidence, energy, creativity and communication in students. Paired with the cultural exposure students receive from an appreciation class, it seems like a performance class will do more for students in the long run.
Some students who are pigeonholed into an appreciation class may find the class a repeat of high school if they have been practicing the art for many years. As a high school thespian, I have already learned about and even practiced upstage, downstage, creating a script, blocking and cheating out — all topics we discuss in detail in my appreciation class.
The itch to get up and actually do what we talk about in class scratches away at me every Monday and Wednesday.
In the long run, it really does not matter if a nursing student receives his or her fine arts requirement by sculpting or learning about famous sculptors or a journalism student acts instead of learning about the history of Greek theater.
The fine arts requirement of a degree is for many the last chance to do something wildly creative.
Let the students decide whether or not they want to actually act or learn about the history of drama.
In the end, it will ultimately make our brief immersing in the arts much more fruitful.
