Salvatore Pecorella, Charlotte Academy of Music
In the age of technology we live today, you can find an answer at the click of a button. There is knowledge being spread everywhere free of charge. While this is a good and noble thing, it can have negative consequences. Being able to find any answer to any problem kills the propensity to be creative. One finds the answer because someone else found it for them. It required no original thought or innovation to attain the knowledge for oneself. While this instantaneous access to data can be a good thing in a time of need…over the long span it could kill the creative synapses of the mind. The government wants to put focus on a program called STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics). While there are many attributes to this type of focus, it clearly misses one thing. Every STEM needs some soil to grow.
Enter the arts! Let’s play a game. If I said to you I wanted to make a cut in funding to an area that stimulates: physics, communication, socialization, inspiration, coordination, cultural awareness, patience, problem solving, collaboration, efficacy, goal setting, discipline, acoustics, history, and therapy…what would you say? Does that sound like an “extra” area to you? An area that deserves a cut in funding? I thought not! The arts need to be seen for what they are…CORE.
The US is currently in a state of transition. A transition that is slowly shifting the focus of subject matter in our schools. The arts are being cut to make way for more science and mathematics courses. Tada! I give you STEM. A program like STEM means well, but ends up cutting the one area that makes all of this innovation possible. The arts have been shown to lay the groundwork that stimulate the mind to be creative. These imaginative classes have been deemed as an “elective” most of the time. However, it is time for them to come out of the shadows and take back the slots that are so rightfully theirs. Music studies help students understand mathematical concepts. The National Institute on Early Childhood Development and Education states it very simply, “Listening to and making music form strong connections in the brain. These are the same connections used to solve mathematical problems.” Mathematical concepts help students solve complex scientific equations. Scientific research and mathematical knowledge help develop new engineering methods. All of these help to further develop new technology. The visual and performing arts help students learn to think outside the box. STEM eliminates the imagination to think outside of what you have been told. How far can information take you? There will come a time when the problem is not given, but rather stumbled upon. A new problem that will need innovative thought to solve. Here is where the arts step into the development process as they drive the cortex in a positive manner. Knowledge of musical concepts lends itself to composition. Composition of new chords and tunes that you find pleasing by experimentation. By learning to create an original piece of music one has to use creativity, science, math, and if we are being truly innovative (for example, creation of a new musical medium) engineering. The same can be said of visual art. Especially in today’s world, visual art is a way to let yourself free. There is no form more pure than a type of expression that accepts all mediums as true concepts. Even when someone disputes as to whether or not something is truly “art”. This is a stimulation of debate and causes a person to create an intelligent argument as to why, or why not, a piece is/ is not “art”.
The arts help to form the creative, goal oriented, communicative adults of tomorrow that will lead our society into the future. It is easy to say that the STEM approach will breed smart and educated members of society. But at what cost…creating information spitting robots? Will they be able to solve new problems that arise with creative new solutions, or stumble and fail because of a lack of imagination? The arts are the very soil needed for the government’s STEM!