Why This Matters
Students cannot choose an opportunity they never knew existed.
Fine Arts education gives students opportunities to encounter new interests, abilities, communities, and possibilities.
Exposure does not determine a student's path.
It gives them another path to discover.
EXPOSURE CREATES DISCOVERY
Students do not always enter school knowing what will interest them, challenge them, or make them feel like they belong.
A student may not know they love theatre until they step onto a stage.
They may not see themselves as an artist until a camera, a lump of clay, or a paintbrush is placed in their hands.
They may not know they can sing until someone gives them a place in a choir.
They may never imagine themselves behind the scenes until they encounter a lighting console, sound board, costume shop, or scene shop.
And they may not discover the community that feels like their place until someone gives them the opportunity to walk through the door.
DISCOVERY REQUIRES AN OPPORTUNITY
TO ENCOUNTER SOMETHING FIRST.
OPPORTUNITIES CAN DISAPPEAR QUIETLY.
Fine Arts opportunities do not always disappear all at once.
Sometimes, they disappear one decision at a time.
A requirement changes.
A course becomes harder to fit into a schedule.
Enrollment declines.
A section is offered less often.
An opportunity becomes easier to miss.
And the student who might have discovered something there
may never know what was on the other side of the door.
You cannot miss an opportunity
you never knew you lost.
THIS IS WHY WE'RE PAYING ATTENTION.
Indiana is changing its high school diploma requirements beginning with the Class of 2029.
For ESDA, one change matters in particular.
CURRENT ACADEMIC
HONORS DIPLOMA
Two Fine Arts Credits
VS.
NEW ENROLLMENT
HONORS SEAL
No Specific Fine
Arts Requirement
Fine Arts courses remain available to students and may count toward Personalized Electives. But the specific two-credit Fine Arts expectation included in Indiana's current Academic Honors Diploma is not carried into the new Enrollment Honors Seal.
The arts have not been removed from Indiana schools.
The expectation that honors-level students encounter them has.
KEEP THE DOOR OPEN.
Every Student Deserves the Arts is asking Indiana to preserve a two-credit
Fine Arts requirement within its new honors-level diploma structure.
Not because every student will become an artist.
Not because every student will choose to continue in the Fine Arts.
Because every student deserves the opportunity to discover what
might be waiting for them on the other side of the door.
For the students who don't know yet.