Like most school systems, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) requires a certain amount of credits in order for a student to graduate. Unfortunately, the requirements sometimes restrict students from pursuing courses they have a passion for and actually want to learn about just because they need to take a certain course to graduate and they don’t have room in their schedules. 

Oxford Dictionary defines the word ‘art’ as the various branches of creative activity, such as painting, music, literature, and dance.

At WJ, students who choose to join The Pitch or The Spectator are not rewarded an art credit for their involvement in creative publication. Dance is another elective at WJ that does not qualify for the appropriate credit(s). The question of what dance should be classified as is a controversial one. Is it an art or a physical activity? Both. Dance requires an individual to get creative while being physically active. That being said, a student should be able to choose whether their dance class will count as their art or physical education credit. 

MCPS should reconsider their art credit distribution process. Elective courses such as the school newspaper, literary magazine, yearbook–and dance should be granted an art credit so that students do not have to give up a year of education to focus on something they do not care about in order to graduate.