Whenever any of my teachers announce an assignment with an artistic component, the first things I hear are groans from my classmates.

These groans reflect student attitude toward art projects in nearly all classes. In all academic classes, the use of arts in the curriculum, from projects that require artistic talent to small drawings of literary symbols, often fails to effectively enhance students’ understanding of the course material.

Art projects are not only biased in favor of students who have natural artistic talent, but they usually do not help students digest information or apply prior knowledge. Not only do more conventional assignments such as worksheets and essays meet those two objectives, but they also take less time than art projects, rendering those projects a waste of time and effort for most students.

For instance, color-coding a model of an animal cell does not help students further understand the function of the mitochondria, creating a World War I propaganda poster does not convey the themes of “All Quiet on the Western Front” and including symbolic illustrations on a history timeline only wastes space on the paper.

Of course, crude diagrams are often necessary in order to visualize certain situations described in word problems. For example, if a math problem asks for the angle of the sun in the sky given a pole and its shadow, then a quick sketch of a triangle would help students to figure out which trigonometric function to use. However, these simple diagrams do not require any artistic ability, and it is unfair for teachers to expect their students to have this ability when they assign arts-based projects.

While all students are capable of doing more standard assignments such as worksheets, only a select few can create high-quality artwork. In classes like English and chemistry, the distribution of these skilled artists is random, creating an unfair bias for those few students when an art project is assigned.

And while teachers often assure their students that project grades are based on content and symbolism rather than artistic ability, this only defeats the purpose of giving art assignments altogether. If artistic ability is not graded, then what is the point of assigning a project centered around art in the first place?

Furthermore, artistic creativity has little or no merit in most non-art classes. A student’s ability to color has no impact on whether they can find derivatives or understand themes in “Of Mice and Men.” If artistic skills and creativity are not required for the class, then there is no reason for teachers to include mandatory art assignments as part of their curriculum.

It is understandable that teachers want to give their artistically-inclined students a chance to show off their talents, but they should also consider other students who cannot create artwork of the same quality.

Artistic skill can be learned or improved, but this skill is irrelevant to all academic classes. It would be similar to an English teacher grading on their students’ physical fitness.

Worksheets for STEM classes and analysis paragraphs for humanities classes work far better as assignments to supplement learning. Worksheets force students to think critically about the concepts they have learned, while analysis paragraphs ensure that students truly understand the symbolism in literary works. Unlike art projects, these alternatives are fair for all students.

In my view, teachers should remove arts from their curriculum entirely if they teach a non-art class, freeing up more time for students to properly express their creativity. Without art projects, students who do not enjoy arts would not be forced to waste their time, while students who are interested in art can instead concentrate on creating work that they would be proud of.