Don’t you think your life would be boring without art? I mean, if you notice your surroundings, art is all around you. In fact, nature itself is art. While I do agree that traditional education is important, and leads to higher chances of finding jobs, the arts are important as well.  

Most people underrate art schools and think they don’t give their students a proper education like exam schools or traditional schools. They believe that art takes so much time that it gets in the way of studying and other types of beneficial learning. 

I myself am a teenager who very much enjoys the arts. To be a lover of art and not have the ability to share with others our ideas and express ourselves often feels very suffocating. To those children who wanted to go to an art school but their parents wouldn’t let them — this article goes out to you!

Often parents want the best for their children, but they may underrate the arts because they want their kids to do better than them financially, and they feel it’s unlikely that their child will be one of the few that “make it big.” This can lead parents to discourage their kids from pursuing the arts. 

Even if parents don’t actively discourage their children, they still often don’t understand how important the arts are to their kids’ happiness, even if the work is hard.

“It’s interesting ‘cause there’s no reference for being a film producer, especially if you’re like — if you’re typically from an immigrant family,” said Chris Hyacinthe, a film producer based in Los Angeles. “Any artist’s career [is] kind of abstract and it’s harder to explain and essentialize to your family what it is you’re doing, why you left home, why you're getting underpaid or whatever — like what’s the end goal?”

Even though it may be hard in the beginning, many artists find it rewarding when they finally succeed. That feeling makes it worth it. Everyone starts off from the bottom, working their way to the top, but it’s a phase. At one point in life, we’ve all faced financial instability. It’s normal.

The arts are also really important to our culture; the art industry and its economy contribute to humanity.  Artists provide us with services that make us happy. Animation is art, advertising is art, the whole entire fashion industry is art.

Our society relies on the art industries for profit, so you can still make money. Let's say the government completely got rid of art in general. What would happen to all of the advertisements? Who’s going to buy companies’ products? Who’s going to stick with the latest trends? Or find a cure for their sick loved one? Maybe even a cool vacation spot for the summer?  No models? No sponsors, no clothes left to sell because no one knows they exist. No more new television shows or movies. I know how much y'all like Marvel and DC movies, well guess what? There would be no more. My point is that this is why arts education is important! Without people studying the arts and then becoming professional artists, there would be no filmmakers, photographers, or makeup artists to make your fav celebs look on fleek! Nothing!

There are also academic benefits to participating in the arts. A 2016 study of elementary schoolers in Alabama found that students who took music or visual arts classes performed better on standardized math testing than their peers who did not take art. Researcher Molly Elizabeth King suggested that music was correlated with high scores because it provides an opportunity for students to process emotions and develop problem-solving skills.

Can I be honest, though? The arts can sharpen your creative skills, but I think some of it just depends on the student. Art affects everyone differently. Some say they do better in tests after arts involvement while others say they do worse. As King noted in her study, the arts support important learning and coping skills, but they cannot fix existing academic problems. 

“There are many other factors that contribute to a student’s success (including environment, parental support, and exposure to experiences),” King wrote. “However, research has validated that participating in music can enhance a student’s potential in several key areas.”

Even if the arts are not guaranteed to raise test scores, bringing art projects into the classroom can support learners of different styles. There are different types of learning styles: auditory, tactile and visual. I myself am a visual learner. I often do better with equations once I look at one of the teacher’s examples.

When I was in eighth grade, one of my teachers tested our learning styles through a memory game. She had us look at a selection of items and then covered them, asking us to write down everything we saw. I was able to recall all of the items, but I definitely couldn’t do that if it was a list read out to me. 

In the classroom, similar things come up with lectures. Simply hearing a teacher talk might not click for some students, but allowing students to create diagrams or design posters with drawings may help them remember the information. 

I believe as long as we're doing something that makes us happy, that's enough. You can manage your schedule in order to take care of arts and traditional education. It may be a rocky path to a professional arts career, but as long as you don't give up you can have a strong career in the art industry.

For Hyacinthe, art is a necessity, and he can’t imagine life without it. 

“[Without art life is] boring, uninteresting, and … boring.”

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” 

This is one question that is asked to children, yet some adolescents and adults struggle to find an answer. Researchers from Junior Achievement and EYA used a survey of 1,000 13-to 17-year-olds, to find that 91% of the 1,000 teens knew their dream job. However, when asked why they were interested in this career, 28% of boys said “I think it would be fun,” 21% said “I’d be good at it,” and 17% said, “I’d make a lot of money.” Likewise, 23% of girls said “I’d be good at it,” 25% said “They would like to help people,” and 20% said, “It would be fun.” These answers from the teenagers demonstrate a lack of guidance toward a secure and enlightening career. Students are guessing what the experience of these careers are, rather than having a deep understanding of how they work or any exposure to the day-to-day. 

With the uncertainty of what career to pursue comes the stage of college where there are loans to be offered and many potential fields of study. This means that students can rack up debt if they find that the subject their studying is not for them. This begins to create more debt and stop careers before they get started. An example of this is if someone has gone through four years of medical school to become a doctor and then decides that they actually want to be an engineer. This person has not only wasted four years that could have gone toward being an engineer or studying engineering, but they’ve also accumulated thousands of dollars in debt, which means that they won’t have enough money to pursue being an engineer. If you need more education that costs money, but even if you don’t often people end up taking a pay cut to start over in another career area.

This is also a lasting problem with current adults who have not found a career path to their liking. This causes depression and a trap where people live paycheck-to-paycheck without a way out of the job. A lawyer shares his unpleasant experience during his career with Business Insider when he complains, “I have all these crushing student loans, so I’m living in a moderately sized apartment … I don’t have time to do anything. It’s amazing how little time you have when you work all the time.” The issue the lawyer made was he gambled that he would like the career of a lawyer when deciding to go to graduate school instead of exploring.

However, there still are ways to preserve a future career that is fulfilling and filled with hope. Valduvino Gonçalves, director of guidance at New Mission High School, advises that students can learn more about careers by “doing some kind of self-assessment [and] then using a Naviance platform to research the type of careers that exist ... then follow up the research with the competition by talking to a counselor or teacher.” In addition, Gonçalves advises to take on internships. “Sometimes it takes you to do the job first until you figure it out,” he said.

Rap music can affect people in many different ways. Rap lyrics can be relatable to a current life situation, they can help motivate people or they can provide a sense of hope. Because of the stay at home advisory, everyone is now at home and probably listening to music. Due to these current circumstances, now is a great time to bring up the debate of whether or not listening to rap music is harmful for youth. 

A lot of people think that teens who listen to rap can become more aggressive, violent, or even participate in gang violence. There is a concern that teens idolize rappers who engage in risky behavior, like drug abuse and violent crime. Many, such as the Council on Communications and Media, believe that adolescents exposed to these actions in lyrics and music videos may be at risk for taking part in the same actions. 

Certainly some teens see rappers talking about being in a gang and think it’s cool. They may want to be in one so bad that they start acting out, becoming more violent, or start doing drugs. When asked if he thinks rap music is beneficial or harmful for teens, South Middle School student Lucho Rosa said, “I think it’s good for teens especially for someone who plays sports but can influence kids to do things they’re not supposed to do.” While casual listening has its benefits, the possibility of influencing teens to do something out of character might be possible.

Overall, I disagree with claims that listening to rap is harmful to teens. Many teens who think of a rapper as a strong influence in their life may just be inspired by their music or hope to make similar music some day. Others may enjoy listening to music because it helps get them through a tough situation or matches the kind of emotions they feel. Listening to music does not mean teens will want to be in a gang or be violent or use drugs. 

A study conducted at Emory University, “Exposure to Rap Music Videos and African American Female Adolescents’ Health,” concluded students in their study who listened and watched a higher amount of rap music were more likely to get into a fight, to get arrested, or to take part in risky or illegal activities. The small sample size of only 552 teens in this study hardly seems like enough data to draw conclusions about teen behavior. Many teens, including my friends and myself,  listen to rap music and are normal kids who live a normal lifestyle without all of the claims this study is finding. While some teens may listen to rap and pretend they are about that gang life when they are not, most teens don’t want to participate in this harmful subject matter. 

In a 2006 NPR broadcast, “Rap Music Linked to Alcohol, Violence”, Professor Denise Herd from the University of California Berkeley and Professor David Jernigan from Georgetown University talk about how teens who listen to rap are more likely to abuse alcohol. They believe that the many references to drugs and alcohol made in rap music can put teens at greater risk to start using at a young age. Again, I disagree with this claim. Even though rap music does frequently mention drugs and alcohol, young people are not guaranteed to think much about lyric meanings. Instead, I believe they are more likely to sing it out loud and enjoy the beat. According to a teen from Joseph Plouffe Academy, Aujane Lewis, when asked how many times she actually thought about the lyrics she said, “Never.” More often than not, Lewis is just enjoying listening to music, not dwelling on what it’s saying or its deeper meaning.

I think rap music is beneficial because it’s a way for teens to relate to someone. In an article entitled “Rap Music as a Positive Influence on Black Youth and American Politics,” Santa Clara University scholar Natalie Wilson argues, “ rap music...serves as an outlet, both for listeners and artists, for understanding the hardships of growing up within the struggles of inner-city life caused by institutional racism.” Wilson believes rap music can be relatable for youth who face certain hardships on a daily basis, specifically citing African Americans who face racism to this day. 

Wilson goes on to say, “Rap artists who became famous and escaped inner-city life understand first hand the sufferings that Black Americans face and are an inspiration for Black youth to also escape the inner city.” Here, teens can see and know about someone out there who went through similar problems and hardships and were able to get through it. Most rappers who were poor and raised in bad neighborhoods and became famous for their music talk about the hardships they had to go through to be successful. While some rappers might be affiliated with gangs or did violent things in the past, it does not mean teens should not be able to appreciate their music and the success that came from their talent. In this way, rappers who found fame are able to inspire youth and provide hope for a better life. 

Polo G, a popular artist and one of my favorite rappers, makes a lot of good music about his life experiences, and covers deep topics in his music such as making sacrifices, family losses, and going to jail. These experiences are relatable to a lot of people in similar situations. Polo G has discouraged gang affiliation and believes it should not be idolized. In one of his songs, “Lost Files,” he mentions fake people, people who idolize gang lifestyle, his discouragement of gang life, and the importance and depth to making sacrifices. 

Some argue that listening to rap can even help teens with their overall mental health and wellness. An article published in the Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities speaks to Hip-Hop based interventions being a helpful and beneficial method to improve well-being in teens. The article states, “hip hop interventions have been developed to improve health literacy, health behavior, and mental health,” showing how listening to music can be helpful in a variety of ways to teens.  

Overall, I believe that rap music is mainly beneficial for youth.  For rappers, it’s like an outlet to share stories of family loss or personal gain or hardship. For teens, it can be a source of inspiration and motivation to get out of a rough situation, to create music of their own, or as a way to understand and improve their wellbeing and identity.