Fine arts courses deserve honors boosts

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Fine arts classes are overdue for honors boosts

OMAR KAYALI online opinions editor

The life of a fine arts student isn’t an easy one. On top of the normal coursework and social acrobatics, they work ridiculously hard to create something for others to appreciate: art you can see, touch, hear, read and experience—unique crafts that take time and effort to perfect.

However, fine arts are not afforded the same cushion of an honors boost that other electives like STEM and advanced language courses are given. Fine arts classes deserve honors designations to help ease some of the added stress on students.

While at first glance classes like Photojournalism and Theater may not seem to have a curriculum fitting of an honors class, the coursework is more than rigorous enough to account for a boost.

Earlier this school year, the county denied a request to give upper-level journalism courses an honors boost.

“Requests for an honors designation are reviewed to determine if the course has a standard course offering pairing and/or includes evidence of rigor as the highest level in a specialized area of postsecondary study,” FCPS Director of Curriculum and Instruction Colleen Eddy said. “Courses which entail college-level coursework or career certification might also demonstrate the rigor associated with an honors designation.”

Classes like Journalism, Photojournalism and Theater are more rigorous than most other classes—they quite literally have students running businesses, requiring long hours and specialized equipment and software to produce high-quality work at a professional level.

“For a solid week and a half to two weeks, I am at school until 10 or 12 o’clock working on shows, leaving little time for school work,” said senior JT Fulkerson, the technical director of TheatreMcLean. “I spend more time in Theater than any one class.”

These classes teach students valuable life skills that will help them later on, such as how to work with other people on complex projects and how to take critiques and feedback positively. Students also gain experience working with high-level software and equipment, such as the Adobe Creative Cloud and theater tech.

“I’ve learned a lot of organizational skills and communication skills by dealing with a lot of people,” Fulkerson said. “I have learned how to operate both our sound and light boards, as well as a lot of other helpful skills, as we do a lot of tinkering.”

For students who plan on pursuing a career in the fine arts, these classes have even greater value.

“If a student is applying to a college that values fine arts more than normal, such as an arts school or an arts major within a college, then [fine arts classes] become more important,” McLean’s College and Career Specialist Laura Venos said.

Many students enroll in classes solely for the honors boost they provide, especially at McLean, due to the school’s incredibly competitive nature and high standards. In their quest for a transcript stacked with honors and AP classes, some students who are interested in the fine arts may not want to give one of these classes a try, and everyone loses in that scenario.

As long as FCPS continues to ignore the rigor of fine arts courses, students who pursue their passions while developing reallife skills will continue to be at an unfair GPA disadvantage, while some students may never get to experience the joy of taking a fine arts class in the first place.

I SPEND MORE TIME IN THEATER THAN ANY ONE CLASS.”

- JT FULKERSON SENIOR