You’ve likely asked yourself while sitting through what seems like a never-ending gym class whether certain electives should be required. However, these classes—namely, art, music, PE, and health—are important for a well-rounded education and creating opportunities for students. 

Art classes, for one, are extremely beneficial for developing brains. A simple art and drawing class can enhance fine motor skills, critical thinking, and hand-eye coordination. Music exercises the brain, improves memory, and assists with language development. Lastly, even though it can feel tedious, PE can also be very valuable as it increases muscle strength and bone density, and it can even help students perform better in their academic classes.

Required elective classes also provide an important creative outlet for students. When academic classes take up most of the day, it can feel draining, so having non-academic periods to give students a break from conventional types of learning is important. Art and music relieve stress, anxiety, and fear, which are mental health challenges that many students experience. Additionally, while kids spend most of their days doing stationary activities, gym classes allow them to move around and exercise their bodies, which provides numerous mental health benefits. 

Beyond these short term advantages, required electives also give students the opportunity to explore hobbies and form new interests. For instance, a high school music class could lead to a potential career as a musician. Similarly, artistic and athletic scholarships are extremely helpful in getting children to college, as they have huge financial benefits and they allow kids to continue doing what they love while pursuing a degree. On the subject of financial benefits, required electives enable kids to explore different artistic and musical mediums that they might not have been able to access otherwise, due to the expense of such activities. 

Another important point to highlight is that required elective classes have gotten much better over time. Health, for example, has improved tremendously from previous generations. What used to be just an awkward conversation about sex has developed into a curriculum that deals with physical and mental health, safe consumption of drugs and alcohol, gender identity, and human sexuality. Health class is now a valuable tool for students to use when making decisions about their bodies. 

Success in today’s world requires so much more than the core academia that is strongly emphasized. Art, music, health, and physical education classes provide benefits that are incomparable to those provided by STEM and literature classes. Incorporating these subjects into students’ lives will create healthy, open-minded, and creative adults. •