The arts offer collaboration without a common enemy.
Team sports provide a great chance to work on camaraderie and group cohesion – in an attempt to defeat an opposing team. The US military does a superb job of training discipline and that same cohesion – with an understanding that it may be used to defeat a military enemy in war. Awards season even turns artistic endeavors into an art with a common enemy – the other films, songs, or shows in your category.
But the arts don’t need an enemy. When my ensemble works together, it’s for a common purpose, but there’s no enemy. We don’t beat anyone by singing our pieces extra well. When Les Misérables opens tomorrow in Rockford, a company of over 100 will work together to tell a story to an audience. There’s no enemy, just art to create. (Well, the Revolutionaries in the cast would say the French army is the enemy, but that’s fictional.)
There is value, of course, in any activity that helps groups of people work together. It’s an especially important skill to teach young people, and one often underrepresented in the classroom. But there’s extra value in opportunities that get that to happen without any of the negative emotions we can develop when we have an enemy.
Just one more reason to encourage students to experience the arts in school.