In honor of National Arts in Education Week I'd like to share how my 5-year journey at a liberal arts institution has stimulated my growth into a conscientious and active citizen.
When I was 16 years old I was forced to begin critically thinking about my career path. All around me, influential figures preached the gospel of, " becoming". My guidance counselors, teachers, parents, aunts, uncles, and every passerby were all asking me one question: What college are you going to? Yes, that's right, there was no question that the 93-pound glasses-wearing, braided hair, nose in book 16 year old me was going to college! So I did what any millennial would and I hit the net to track down scholarships, look up school stats, and even began my CommonApp. Yet none of the searching yielded the kind of campus that would help me develop.
Sure, Cornell would have looked great on my current CV. When I was 18 I applied to Emory, as well as Oxford Emory, for any chance to experience the "top pre-medical program in the South", but there was something missing. I appreciate knowledge. I always have. It's why I loved reading in my childhood but I wanted to know more than just what the courses for my major had to teach me for my career. I wanted to learn more than human anatomy, more than introductory physics, or the basics of organic chemistry. I wanted to know why our political system has its current structure. I wanted to know where people derived their ethics, I wanted to know how photons hitting retinas became images of trees, and why our society is still segregated between the haves and the have-nots. Who are these people and how did our political system allow them to become so egregiously wealthy?
GSU, Cornell, Emory, Harvard, Georgia Tech, UGA and many other institutions of higher education offer you tools to get a job. I needed the the tools to make a life, make a living, and make a difference. But trust me when I say 18 year old me had no idea that the tiny liberal arts institution in the city within a city would be exactly what I needed. As a matter of fact, I'd like to thank Ms. Vax, my high school English teacher who laughed at me when I said,"Learning for the sake of learning was an outdated concept only useful to the well-to-do." I was of the belief that there was no other reason to go to college than to get a piece of paper that said you were smart enough to get a good job. That laugh would be the spark to my curiosity about the Core program at Oglethorpe University. (Oh, and an eerie historical figure report that I wrote on James E. Oglethorpe in the 4th grade.)
Oglethorpe was the first college that I applied to and the only application that I enjoyed. The application was brief and I didn't have to pay a fee. It asked for an essay about a pressing moral issue and my solution. This question took me two days to form a coherent response, roused my desire to participate in politics, and offered me the opportunity to share my opinion dressed up in figurative illustrations.
Shortly after my acceptance, tour of the campus, and enrolling in classes, our first assignment rolled into my inbox: The Common Reading. We were, as the class of 2016, expected to read The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, a stellar work of fiction about the horrors of the Vietnam War, both externally and internally for a soldier. I realized after the first week of classes that I was one of the few students that actually read it and wrote a response. Yet, more importantly it would be the solidifying bond between myself and my first year roommate. Art strengthens bonds.
Another integral part of the first year experience is first year seminar. This was my last chance as a biology major to infiltrate another field unsuspected, so I ran straight for the theater and never looked back. This seminar course was open, and not artificially so, organically open, that's the way I'd describe the kind of people drawn to theater. We are writers, artists, and story-tellers desperately trying to convey our story to everyone we meet, even when we're silent. To be surrounded by and instructed by individuals that know the classics of theatrics, appreciate modern takes, and are organically open was one of the most nurturing aspects of my first year.
I went on to take an introductory theatre class that would be the solidifying factor in my presentation prowess. We learned to speak from our diaphragms and we learned to be engaged and aware of our bodies. We did a lot of yoga and walking around in circles during class, but it provided us a sense of awareness and connection like none other. We learned how to speak without words and how to interpret the nuanced emotions of others. We were open about our pasts on the first assignment and grew 'till we could always see our shy younger selves peep out behind grandiose performances and we laughed together, with genuine tears of joy painting our cheeks.
Studying the art of theatrics would set me up for success in leadership and supporting positions, it would make me hyper-aware of the passage of time, and it would allow me to be more self-aware. Do they teach self-awareness 101 at other colleges? Perhaps they do, but at OU they definitely do, it's called Narrative's of the Self. A self-awareness course disguised as a literature class takes us through historic, classical, and modern literary works that carve out the varying definitions of character in relation to the broad idea of "the self."
This course is the groundwork for the other core classes that explore, the history of art, the history of music, the history of us, and how to make sense of the world through science. Core sparks and answers questions like: What conditions post WW2 set in motion the progression towards an overuse of resources and a mindset that would leave millennials to battle a barren/jobless market while decorated in higher education degrees? Why is Trump appealing to lower middle-class Americans? How did Hitler become a fascist dictator of a republic? The answers to these questions link together and create a human narrative.This is the story that our generation continues to write.
In order to not repeat the mistakes of the past it is vital that we reflect on international history. In order to watch and understand the developing world of technology around us it is vital that we understand and appreciate science. We must become more scientifically literate and work together toward sustainable solutions, unlike our forefathers. We cannot be self-aware, we cannot be good citizens, we cannot be human without art.
If you take anything away from my story please leave with this: arts is vital to education, it provides the essential micro-nutrients that render our society functional. Without the arts we are career driven, money hungry, machines and not men. Without the arts we are politically inert, dead to the passage of power from dynasty to dynasty. Without the arts we are helpless to communicating effectively and incapable of building bridges to understanding.
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