The Importance of Art

I strongly disagree with the statement that "Tax dollars should not be wasted on art, music or theater classes in high school. Public high schools should be about training young people to enter the workforce. Period." It's a very shallow way of thinking. It bestows importance only on topics such as math and science, while oppressing people's talents and forcing them to be just like everyone else. It's forcing a singer to become a history teacher, it's forcing a painter to be a biologist, it's forcing a filmmaker to be a lawyer, because they are not exposed to the art world, they are not taught anything new to develop their skill, and they are discouraged from pursuing their passion. That's not a future I'd like to live in, in which all we have is teachers and lawyers and doctors, an artless world created by people who believe that funding "true knowledge" is important but that funding things that make people happy are pointless. Office jobs are important for society to function, but the purpose of life is not to function but to thrive. And society does not thrive without art. It's as simple as that. Art is the foundation of a society. Books teach us morals, music lifts our spirits when nothing else can, movies touch deep into people's feelings and teach us about other people and other worlds~ art connects us and taking it out of public school curriculum would be wrong. By saying that the tax dollars are "wasted" on art is to condemn those that are passionate about art. Everybody likes one form of art or another, but you can't demand a service then condemn those who provide it. Alrighty that's all, thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.