TO THE EDITOR:
I appreciated the article “Arts out of focus on the path to college.” However, I do not think that the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools district, one of the wealthier and highest performing school districts in the state, is the best example.
Instead, let’s look at Rowan County, a rural school district where 60.5 percent of its students qualify for free and reduced lunch.
In Rowan County, some of the schools do not even have a drama program.
When I attended Salisbury High School from 2008-2012, there was a different band director hired each year, and, in some periods, band members did not even have an instructor.
Fortunately, Salisbury High School offers the most Advanced Placement classes in the county.
Unfortunately, I felt a lot of pressure to abandon my drawing hobby and instead enroll into more science and math AP classes.
Instead of taking AP Psychology my sophomore year, I took Art II and had to sacrifice a few decimal points off my GPA.
At Salisbury High School, students cannot take a lot of art classes and still be valedictorian of their class.
