Review of Fame (2009) by Garrett C — 06 Dec 2015

With all of the fuss lately about schools cutting their arts programs, one has to ask whether arts education is really important in high schools. As an art student myself, I can attest to how unimportant arts education in high school actually is. "Fame" does a marvelous job of portraying this to its audiences. "Fame" shows its audiences exactly what happens when a high school student is granted the opportunity to study their art in school. These students choose to spend their time perfecting their art rather than actually gaining an education, and therefore are not at all prepared for life after high school.

I think it's a great idea for these students to pursue their art form as a career. However, these students need to be prepared for the real world. You can't always plan for everything. What happens if you get injured? What happens if all the training you've put in isn't good enough? What happens if a few stupid decisions prevent you from ever getting a serious job? If you only focused on your art classes in high school, you're screwed. Sadly, most high school students don't think that far in advance when they first enter high school. They are only focused on what's fun and convenient for them in the moment. They lack the perspective and cognitive training to think any other way. By granting teenagers the opportunity to sacrifice their academic classes for arts classes, you are essential giving them a heavily unbalanced set of options to choose from, which, if they make the wrong choice, could make their life a lot more difficult than it needs to be in the long run.