Thinking Further About The Arts.

So, its coming up for Grade 9 and 10 exam choices. Now only in grade 8, you're not quite sure what you you want to do with your life. You feel very passionate about Drama and Music and know that your career will involve both. Not being able to choose these subjects would limit your career options. Aren’t you the one deciding your own future? Understanding the points experts have made I still think its our choice as students, to make our own choices.

I take the position that there needs to be more opportunities for arts in IGCSE, while the students are encouraged to take a variety of subjects in order to give them a broad foundation when picking IB diploma subjects. Yet there still seems to be a bias for other subjects with an explanation that an art could be covered as an activity. The Arts are more likely to be a students passion with clear career paths that can be followed, and finally Arts can give more students opportunities to express themselves. 

One reason students would benefit from being able to choose more than one art, is that in these subjects they can express themselves. In the art subjects you have opportunity to create your own compositions. When you compose something in music or design something in D.T, you can reflect yourself in it, and make it your own. Whereas in many other academic subjects, the aim is to problem solve and learn facts. For an example in a recent Music unit, we had to show our learning, by getting together in groups and fulfil the certain requirements that had to be in the piece. But as long as we had these requirements, we were able to put our own flair to it, which made each piece unique. In contrast, lately in a science unit we were learning about the body systems. That unit was very facts based and there was no place where we could add our own pizzazz to it.

Another reason that only being able to choose one art is unfair is that there seems to be a bias towards non art subjects. All students take coordinated science on the understanding that it gives you a good base for IB diploma, which limits you from getting another GCSE in another subject area because coordinated science amounts to two GCSE’s. The GCSE program does not enable a student who knows they need to take two of the arts for their career. For example Cathy Jones VP of UWC East High School, states that there are other ways to fulfil art interests by doing activities instead of taking another art exam. You could do performances rather than do a Drama GCSE or you could take part in the orchestra or other ensembles rather than do Music GCSE.

Lastly, art subjects encourage feelings of passion; when you do subjects you know that you can succeed in, you want to pursue them as far as you can. Only being able to choose one of Music and Drama when they go so well together would limit your possibilities. Art subjects are vocational and often encourage people to follow a different and more unusual path. The values of UWCSEA encourage students to make a change to go beyond the expected. Pursuing the Arts fulfils this in the same way that other subjects do. This is significant because whether you are designer or an artist or an actor you can make the same impact as a scientist, explorer or humanitarian could. Being passionate about what you do can only make you more determined to succeed. “Plus est en vous” Are the famous words of Kurt Hahn, Theres more in you than you think. Following your passion enables you to aim higher.

Murder Of the Innocent Girls

In my perspective, both men and women are equal. You may not feel the same but ask yourself why? What is it that makes men superior to women? We are the same species, and DNA. In the weaker societies in India this is not considered to be true. Some people go to such an extent, that if their newborn child is a girl, they kill them. This is due to the prevalence of the disgraceful practice of an old Indian tradition called dowry. Dowry is the act of the bride’s side giving, money, land or expensive gifts to the bridegroom on their wedding day. Because this is still prevalent in some of the weaker societies in India, some families believe that the education and marriage of a daughter is a financial burden on them. For this reason they kill newborn, baby girls either before or just after birth. Every day, across the country 2,000 infants are killed. The current sex ratio in India is 914:1000. Is that fair? Your answer is most probably no, for this is clearly murder. This can have horrible effects such as imbalanced sex ratios and decrease in population. Women are equal to men, and deserve to be treated the same and be given the same opportunities, for women are an equal part of society. In this modern era they cannot be discriminated against. 

In today's day and age, women are just as important in society as men are. By evolving from times when women stayed at home and did not work, women are hold a strong status, equal men. Killing the female child is not only murder but also discriminating against women. Malala Yousafzai and activist for female education and the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate says, “ When God created man and woman, he was thinking, 'Who shall I give the power to, to give birth to the next human being?' And God chose woman. And this is the big evidence that women are powerful." This shows that there is no natural reason for women to be considered inferior to men but quite the contrary, women were chosen to reproduce humans. They should be treated with respect and treated the same way men are treated. However the most important reason why infanticide is bad is because it is simply murder of children. The dictionary definition of infanticide is ‘the crime of a mother killing her child within a year of birth’. Simply put, this is not civil and should be considered as murder. Pope Francis, the head of the Christian community says, “Life once conceived, must be protected with the utmost care; abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes.” This also suggests that babies, whether they are just born or not yet, are alive and infanticide is killing them and that this is no different than murder. They should be nurtured and appreciated and they should not be killed just because of gender. Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the U.S.A. said, “Abraham Lincoln recognized that we could not survive as a free land when some men could decide that others were not fit to be free and should therefore be slaves. Likewise, we cannot survive as a free nation when some men decide that others are not fit to live and should be abandoned to abortion or infanticide.” This also shows that man cannot decide to kill a newborn child as it is human and killing it is a crime. It is not in their hands to kill. It is bad not to take care of that child but killing it is unacceptable. This killing leads to an inevitable and terrible effects. With a drastic decrease in the number of women, the number of mothers also decrease leading to a decrease in the country's population. This will inevitably lead to several problems for the country, the most important of which is that the living conditions will decline. This is because of the inadequate labor force which would have boosted the output and production of goods and services. This will also reduce the manpower and income, as well as investments. There is also the fact that this will result in fewer people in the army, who would be defending the country during time of war. E.A. Bucchianeri, a known author says “Abortion should be listed as a weapon of mass destruction against the voiceless.” This means that when a child is born, it knows nothing, it can say nothing. Yet, it is human and killing it is basically denying it it's human right- the right to live. These girls are meant to be the next generation but by killing them, they are limiting the next generation.

In conclusion, I feel that infanticide is a horrible crime that has drastic short term and long term effects. It could lead to several problems such as decrease in the population and also the decrease in the power and dignity of women. This is idea of infanticide is growing more and more have thousands of victims every day. Though it happens in first world countries as well, this seems to be a major problem in India. A valuable suggestion that should be taken into account is the idea of baby hatches. This idea has been taken up by several countries such as the U.S., UK, and several European countries. Baby hatches are safe places where a parent can leave their child without the fear of prosecution. They will then be looked after by the government and if possible, be placed with an adoptive family. The Ministry of Women and Child development should take this into consideration as it will help a lot of people, and save a lot of lives, helping us nurture and preserve the future generations.