In the contemporary era, there is a vigorous discourse regarding whether students are obliged to learn about art and music in secondary school. This essay will express my support for this stance.
Admittedly, requiring secondary students to study art and music presents some drawbacks. To clarify, all students usually have to assimilate a wide range of new and advanced knowledge from various subjects such as math, science, physics, and theory subjects, making it challenging for them to follow educational programs. Therefore, if an obligation to study art and music is adopted, this might exert excessive work and academic pressure on students, which could adversely impact their mental health. In addition, because art and music can be seen as special subjects that heavily hinge on the talent and passion of each individual, when students without ability are pushed to learn these subjects, this could lead to boredom or even opposition in the classroom. This, in turn, might extend beyond merely exacerbating the classroom atmosphere; it may also compromise the school’s reputation. The confluence of these factors suggests the drawbacks of requiring all secondary students to study art and music.
However, I firmly believe that such a requirement engenders distinct benefits. Specifically, as secondary students’ horizons are limited and narrow, usually becoming an obstacle for them to decide on their career paths, forcing them to study art and music serves as an option for them to diversify their future decisions about their jobs. This, thus, potentially empowers students to set a fixed direction to strive toward and subsequently achieve their goals, which enables them to seek steady and suitable jobs to settle down their lives more effortlessly in the future. Coupled with this, learning arts and music helps both gifted and non-talented students to let off steam effectively owing to new, interesting experiences such as singing with friends or whole classes, and drawing their favorite people and things. Consequently, the obligation for all students to study such subjects should be regarded as recreational activities rather than an academic burden. These elements illustrate the role of this requirement in secondary students’ academic lives.
In conclusion, although asking all students in secondary educational institutions to study art and music offers some resultant drawbacks, including increasing the number of tasks and causing a boring studying atmosphere in the classroom, I maintain that its merits in identifying students’ future direction and entertaining them are much more comprehensive.