The Pittsburgh Public School system has a magnet school downtown in the Arts District called the Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts School, and it serves around 900 students grades 6-12. There are 7 art majors; visual arts, literary arts, theater, production technology, instrumental music, vocal music, and dance. Students must submit a portfolio or undergo an audition to be admitted.

Here is the thing about that. It may sound exclusionary, but the students attending CAPA are serious about their art. Some of them have to ride 3 city buses to get to that school. To put them in the same classroom with students to whom art, music, or theater is just a fun easy credit would be a dis-service to them, and a waste of time for students who are not taking it seriously. Their time would be better spent working on basic academic or work skills. To put a student who is really trying to be a good writer into a class with other students who are not reading and writing at their grade level would be wasting their time as well.

The reality is that there are only so many hours in a school year, and teaching art to a kid who isn't reading or doing math at their grade level is just stupid. Yes, those kids will have to make a living some day, and it won't be as an artist.

Talent and ambition are real.