CHS students planning to matriculate to a four-year college or university may have difficulty fulfilling certain institutions’ requirements while meeting personal interests. The one-year fine art requirement covers many areas in visual and performing arts, such as dance, music, theater, and film. Not included in this category is anything within the area of written expression, which is arguably an art. Writing in all forms should be considered a fine art and, therefore, be included in the Fine Art credit requirement.
Compare writing to the other major arts. While an artist uses a canvas, paints, and brushes to create a vibrant scene, a writer uses words on paper to create mental imagery. Written language can be read silently, listened to as someone else reads it, or experienced as a performance. Few other art forms can claim this distinction. A musical composition can be thrilling to hear and can elicit deep feelings. A fine poem, short story, or novel can do the same and, in some cases, provide a greater understanding of the major themes addressed. Theater is considered under the art requirement, but theater without words would consist of mimes gesturing to an audience. What the actors say is provided by the writer, often with directions on how to perform. After this comparison, written language passes the test as a fine art.
English electives that could be used to fulfill this requirement already exist. CHS currently offers Creative Writing and Journalism 1 as semester courses. There are also year-long classes such as Journalism 2 and Interscholastic Speech and Debate. If written expression becomes eligible to fulfill art credits, even more options could be developed as well. CHS offers a computer graphic arts course which fulfills the visual art credit; Wolfpacket and Yearbook, classes that utilize graphic designing and writing do not qualify for the fine art credit.
Educators realized that not all students’ interests and abilities were being addressed by the fine arts category. According to the California Department of Education High School Education Requirement, career technical education was made a choice for students to complete the Fine Art requirement in the 2012-2013 school year. American Sign Language is also included under the foreign language area. Additionally, after high school students have the ability to pursue a Master of Fine Arts, which includes literary fields such as Creative Writing. This shows that colleges and graduate schools accept writing as a fine art, but it is still commonly unacknowledged in the high school level. Given these supplementary fields, it seems reasonable that a new type of art should be added to help students meet this requirement. Written expression should indeed be considered an art form.
Critics of this proposal might point to the fact that fine arts are traditionally considered to be visual. They would not normally include written expression under this banner. Perhaps, however, after listening to the arguments for inclusion in this category, they may willingly change their minds and agree that written expression is a true fine art form.