Contrast this with my highly sporty, people pleasing son, and their experiences are night and day.
You see, my daughter is a creative. She thrives on this, it is what makes her heart sing. Not only that, the performing arts have been a bright light helping her through a deep dark tunnel of anxiety.
Around the country, the Arts have been shelved, and if they have not be shelved, the way they are taught have become so product driven that any essence of what would or could be called creativity has been drained out of it.
If you know my work at all, you will know the Arts from the basis of our school, largely through play and Mantle of the Expert. This is not to the detriment of the other areas of learning, instead it has enhanced everything. Everything is connected and should be. By cutting out the Arts we are crudely cutting off an arm and a leg from the body that is learning. Art (and I mean all areas of art) is a means of expressing, it brings learning to life, gives it breath. It is in fact a huge part of our human experience.
Anyway this blog post is not really about me, if you will scroll through my posts, you will see many of these themes repeated. This post is in fact dedicated to my daughter and her (almost over) journey through school. She is a great speech maker, with something to say. Her speech last year was exactly around this subject...so I thought I would share it here, so we can hear directly from a student, now entering her last year of High School, who believes deeply in the power and importance of the Arts.
---------------Please remember, this is written as a speech, not a perfect essay by any means, but the idea and theme is very clear.
We as teenagers are currently living in the time of adults trying to work out how to try and improve our wellbeing. This is something our school tries very hard to do but sadly often falls short. While I appreciate the posters telling me to meditate the occasional visiting speakers all sharing ways to cope with our angst and the seemingly random drop out if you’re struggling messages we get in assembly, they really do fall short on what we need and are often counteractive when it comes to improving our wellbeing. Sadly they often cause us more worry. Alarmingly NZ has the highest suicide rate amongst young people of any developed country, not something to be proud of, and not something simply meditating can change.
If schools genuinely desire to see an improvement in our mental wellbeing, one very valuable thing they should consider caring more about is the arts.
I feel that in today’s society the arts are losing their value and recognition due to lack of funding in schools and a failure to prioritize these areas of learning. Sadly everything else seems to be prioritised above the arts. Yet in our world of today, where mental health issues are on the rise, where people feel disconnected, where creativity and innovation are being forgotten, the arts and all the wonderful benefits they bring are becoming more important than ever before and we should be accepting, encouraging and celebrating these areas more.
The arts is a great way to express yourself and become more connected to the world around you, whether you are creating the music or listening to it you are expressing yourself and using it as an outlet to speak your mind in a way. Everyone likes music even if you can’t perform it everyone enjoys listening to it and using it as a tool to express ourselves, the type of music you listen to can direct express your outlook on the world or how you wish to be perceived. Just think mid 2000s teen angst music, although perceived as over the top by the general public or people of older age groups it was used as a form of expression by those teenagers that they had no other way of expressing.
Music through the years has been used as a way of starting political movements and giving others a voice, it has been a way of saying things that you couldn’t get away with normally to express your opinion and outlook on the world. Music should play a big part in our lives. Research suggests that music can stimulate the body's natural feel good chemicals (e.g. endorphins, oxytocin). It can help energise our mood and provide an outlet for us to take control of our feelings. Music can even help us work through problems in our lives.
In today's world we have a very high rate of depression and general stress, especially in teenagers, in my opinion, one way we could help to support this is by promoting the arts more. Although the arts could not necessarily cure anything directly I do believe it is a way to support some of these issues, as it is something that brings joy and a sense of relief. I know personally for myself and many other people that theatre can be a great stress relief and a good way to boost confidence. By doing something creative and pouring your heart and soul into it whether it is theatre or art or music it can be a great way to relieve stress, you can totally forget about all your stresses and just focus on one thing.
Things like drama also build confidence as you get put out of your comfort zone and in the end are rewarded with the satisfaction of performing and seeing people enjoy what you have created, same thing with any of the other arts. Doing anything in a group results in feeling more connected with other people and if it is something you all enjoy you are guaranteed to feel more accepted and connected to those around you. Not only that, but drama helps us to explore situations from different perspectives and in turn increases the empathy we have for them. The performing arts is an effective way to learn about our world and understand our place in it.
The world is changing that is something we all know, we have technology that people even 30 years ago could never even imagine having. Along with all these new amazing advancements in technology we also have a lot of new problems such as climate change, poverty, and mental health issues along with many others. We are going to need creative and innovative people to solve these issues and one of the ways to support creative people is to support the arts, by participating in anything creative you are growing your skill to think outside the box and to think of new ways to do things.
Along with all these creative benefits we also see an improvement in maths and languages when children take part in structured music activities and an improvement in literacy when they take part in drama. If we support creativity and the arts more as a society we will see more people rising up to help these issues in new ways that may not be thought of otherwise and will see more people excelling in literacy and math which would also help support a stronger future. The arts are a window to the world, they give us a sense of perspective and belonging. They are a way we can make sense of our world.
In conclusion I believe that we as a society as outlined above are facing many challenges that could be solved or better supported by those in power prioritising the arts. Wellbeing is negatively affected when we lack the vehicle to express ourselves and feel isolated or disconnected from those around us. The arts allow this connectedness, they give us value and a way to be seen in a positive light. The arts light up our brains and leave us feeling more positive about ourselves, the arts give us a voice. The world faces many problems some of which are yet to be discovered, it is the ability to be creative and innovative that will solve these issues and help to create a better society. We foster this ability through the arts.
Haylee Allen - Year 12 2019
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