A few days ago, my school’s production of Chicago closed its curtains for the very last time. It was a wonderful experience for me and my castmates, truly something everyone should experience at least once in their life.
There’s nothing like the feeling of opening a show. You’ve been working for months, you’ve memorized your lines and your track, and you’ve gotten closer to your castmates and your crew than any of you would have frankly liked. All your hard work pays off in a glorious show that will never seem long enough. (In my case, it was only four days. A blink of the eye.)
It was truly an experience I will never forget, and a memory I will treasure forever.
I consider myself very lucky to have had this experience. But so many people never will. It’s a sad fact of life that the arts aren’t always encouraged, and are actively discouraged by some.
Take a look, and you’ll find dozens of stories discussing budget cuts that give arts programs the boot. Even in our very own school districts, band programs have been shut down. Across the province, the cutting of 7th-grade band has become an increasingly popular way to save money amid budget cuts.
But I ask you, why 7th-grade band? It’s a fact that learning music as a child makes your brain more adaptable, improving everything from cognitive function to memory to coordination to mathematical skills to a million other things. (Don’t take my word for it. Just ask the five million other nerds who’ve written think pieces on it.)
Not only that, but by cutting the band programs in these formative years, it makes it less likely that kids will go down that path at all. Without early exposure, so many kids who would have taken to music simply won’t, and that’s a tragic loss for them.
So, why 7th-grade band? Because it’s seen as expendable. It’s seen as a luxury, as an inessential extracurricular. I truly can’t express how much it’s not.
For so many kids, these band classes, theatres, and choir rooms are safe spaces, places where you can be yourself amid an environment that, since its inception, has encouraged you to fit in with the crowd. They are places where you learn more about your passions, your creativity, and yourself. They are sanctuaries, with mentors and classmates who have the same passion for art as you.
It’s something kids can’t afford to lose.
I love the arts, and the West Shore creative community that has given so much to me over the years. I’m so grateful for the experiences I’ve had, the friends I’ve made, and the mentors I’ve learned from. I wouldn’t trade these experiences for anything.
The arts should be, now and in the future, a priority for anyone wanting kids to have the best possible education. Let’s work on making sure they are.
Aaaaaaand… places everyone.
Gabriel Mackintosh is a student at Royal Bay Secondary School.
