Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Students at school should be required to study art and music in addition to math, language, science and history.
Students at school are usually educated and trained in a wide range of different subjects to prepare for challenges ahead. Since our society gets increasingly competitive, some people say that there is no need for students to waste time on learning art and music, which can hardly help them survive or succeed. However, I believe this a huge misunderstanding. Besides taking classes of math, language, science and history, students at school should definitely be required to have art and music education.
Learning math, language, science and history is the primary goal for most students to attend schools and it is indeed valuable and important. Math cultivates our logical thinking; science explains how wisdom and strategies. The knowledge and information we gain from such education enables us to make our own judgements and decisions wisely and independently. Without knowing the facts and principles from these courses, the world we live in and even ourselves will appear to be unpredictable.
Although the subjects I mentioned in the last paragraph teach students a lot, they are still not enough and need to be complemented by other education such as art and music classes. Learning art and music helps people get relaxed, which is quite necessary in such a competitive and stressful society. Many students at school take having such classes as an opportunity to find relief from the heavy schoolwork, and they will also listen to music and go exhibitions to reduce stress from jobs after graduation. Without taking music and art classes, such relaxation will not even be available due to the lack of capacity to appreciate the beauty of art and music.
Besides providing people with relaxation, learning art and music also brings them a lot of topics of conversation which benefit their social lives. Normally. people do not talk about anything serious pr professional when they first meet each other. Art and music then become the best choices for starting a conversation and making acquaintance with each other. Students can make friends by talking about their favorite pop stars; adults can draw each other's attention by discussing painting or concerts. Basic knowledge of art and music will help us fit in and the lack of it often makes one appear to be uneducated.
Education is one of the most complicated tasks in the world, for it is supposed to prepare students for anything possible. If schools only focus on teaching "practical" and job-oriented skills, their students will never be able to grow us well-rounded and competent contributors to the society.
