Fine arts is an unnecessary requirement for all high school students. Taking a fine arts class is part of the “f” requirement and is mandatory to apply to most colleges. A fine arts class can consist of a class in creative, visual, or performing arts. Schools put too much emphasis on fine arts in general, which is harmful, as it is not useful to the majority of students. Many careers, such as more practical ones in fields like science or math, do not frequently require workers to pull ideas from their own bank of creativity. In addition, students are pressured to complete the requirement in order to be accepted into most good colleges, such as any of the UC’s. Colleges should not require a fine arts class as this adds stress to busy students’ lives and is not useful to the students later in life.

Many students enjoy taking an elective of their choice. A lot of these students are currently taking electives that they have fun being in and would like to continue participating in for their remaining years at CHS. Yearbook, Wolfpacket, and Wolfcast are three of many classes that require a lot of creativity but are not considered a fine arts class. These classes encourage students to be creative and urge them to have the freedom to express themselves. The fine arts requirement is even worse for the students taking these classes because not only are these classes not considered one of the fine arts, but they must drop their passion in exchange for what colleges consider to be a “real” fine arts class. Students are frustrated by the fact that they have to skip out on a year or a semester of taking their favorite electives simply so a college will accept them. It is unfair to students with busy schedules to impose another, less practical class as well.

Additionally, it is frustrating that most of these classes are graded based on a student’s creativity, a skill some students are not naturally gifted with. Most students do not want to simply receive the minimum passing grade. This puts students in a complicated situation. Many students work very hard to keep their GPA as high as it can be. There is no point in settling for a passing grade when one can have a more impressive GPA by taking a class that is based on one’s own personal skills.

Although classes at CHS have no cost during the school year, some students may eventually have to pay for summer classes if they either really cannot fit in an art class, or if they continue to fail because of the lack of skill they possess. The amount of work students are doing during the summer will be minimized if the fine arts requirement was cancelled. This will also give students time to catch up on a class during the summer that is more important.

Finally, some may argue that fine arts classes are helpful to society because of the creativity it brings out of people. This is somewhat true because people often do not realize their potential, but this is still not something that should be required. For these various reasons, the fine arts requirement must be removed for the sake of students at CHS.