Art is a wonderful option, especially when art is so prevalent in our society. People don't realize it but art is in EVERYTHING. Literally everything. Every logo, every commercial, every actual object was designed by an artist. Are you eating food? The packaging and labeling was designed by an artist. The machinery used to make it and harvest it was designed by an artist. Every item in your home was designed and produced by an artist. You want to talk something that is literally all-prevalent? Art. Especially commercial art.

I went to college for art and found that it is a total waste of time (there is no desire for artists with degrees, all anyone cares about is your portfolio) but if you are going into commercial art, college classes are a necessity in how to do it.

And when art is introduced in school, it is useless. When I went into my first art class in high school, the teacher bent over my drawing on the first day of class and then instructed me to pick up my things and stand at the front of the class. She set up an easel next to her desk with my back facing the class and that was where I stayed for the rest of my high school years. While all of the other students had to do the assignments, art history, and projects. I was left at the front to work on whatever I wanted to.

I found this incredibly upsetting. For one thing, it placed one student above the others as though I had more talent. I didn't. I had the ability to draw photorealistically, but because the teacher had singled out that one talent to place on a pedestal, all of the other students' gifts in art were made to look as though they were not as important.

It upset me that there was an option to have free art time in which we (I) could explore art and creativity without limits, yet the class was being made to copy what the teacher did over and over again. I got to experience both sides of how it can be and I didn't like that most students in art classes are not allowed to use their creative skills.

We should really be letting students express themselves creatively. TRUE expression, not copying instruction. It didn't even make any sense since the teacher, herself, was not a professional artist.