Keep arts education in our schools

When someone pursues the visual arts or music, he or she is making a sacrifice. The individual chooses not to take the path of a doctor or lawyer to lead a comfortable lifestyle, but instead chooses to become an artist, who may even struggle to make life work.

But why would anyone do this? Well, the arts are what add just a little more color to life. Imagine if music did not exist, or the great paintings of Claude Monet. Artistry is there to help make the world a better place and it is the goal of most of us to bring people together through it. It is our responsibility to keep it alive, no matter what the cost.

Despite the condition of our economy, we have to keep arts programs in our schools. As a school band member, I would be far from who I am and what I represent today without music. Because of music, we learn to see the world in a different, more creative way.

TANAEYA McCOY Ceres