It is late in the afternoon on the day before winter break and hundreds of students are gathered in the auditorium, waiting while they count down the remaining minutes. Suddenly, the lights dim, and a hush momentarily falls over the crowd as their attention turns to the students on stage, who have spent hundreds of hours practicing for this moment to share their talents with the student body.
The performance begins, but instead of sitting quietly and appreciating their peer’s hard work, the student audience talks over the action on stage, talking filling the room instead of the music.
This is an inevitable scene at the Winter Music Assembly and other similar events. The assembly is designed to spotlight the work of students in band, orchestra, and choir programs. But, each year, the performance is met with the same response: disrespect.
To combat this disrespect, the script at the assembly has been rewritten to include a description of an appreciative audience member, Mark Maranto, Assistant Principal of Student Activities, explained.
“We got to teach people again [that] this is what it means to come see a show and be in the audience,” Maranto said. “We have to promote [to] students [that] it’s a cool thing to watch. It takes a lot of sustained focus.”
Almost half of the students involved in Fine Arts reported feeling ashamed of their involvement and one in five reported feeling judged about involvement in a performing art, according to a non-scientific survey of 315 students conducted by The Oracle.
“A lot of people tend to have [a certain] stereotype of a band kid,” freshman Mykaela Galom, band member said.
Regardless of the stereotypes, Galom said that joining band was one of the best decisions for her because of the skills and values she has learned.
“[In Fine Arts there is] a lot of speaking up for yourself [and] breaking down those barriers of being too scared to talk to people,” Galom said. “It prepares you for real world social interactions.”
South has one of the best Fine Arts Departments in the nation, and every year the school is consistently recognized with several prestigious awards, including the Grammy Signature School recognition in the music department, National Student Production Awards in the theater department, and National Art Honor Society awards in the visual arts, Cody Halberstadt, Fine Arts Instructional Supervisor, said.
These honors are only paper recognitions of the value Fine Arts adds to the South community and to the lives of students who participate. These awards lose significance when Fine Art students return to school with trophies and grants, still lacking acceptance and recognition from many peers.
As an athlete and band member, junior Grant Miller has witnessed a stark contrast between treatment of athletics versus arts, he said. In order to change the culture around the Fine Arts, they should be promoted similarly to South’s athletics, Miller explained.
“The Booster Club posts everything about sports and [South] athletics posts every single day,” Miller said. “But, no one really follows the fine arts.”
South is full of hardworking students, and whether they spend their Saturdays at soccer or band practice, they deserve respect for their efforts.
It is crucial that, as a school, we reshape the perspectives and labels associated with students in the Fine Arts and give them the same consideration we give to any other activity at South.
