Is Music A Capable Solution For Improving Education?

During the twenty-first century, the main topic of discussion in politics have been funding for public schools. In 2008, the federal government decided to stop funding public schools in approximately 60% of the United States (Leachman). Due to these budget cuts, many school corporations have decided to stop funding many extracurricular and curricular activities. The most common area of focus are the arts, more specifically, music. Music programs have been forced to reduce the amount of equipment in their classrooms. This has greatly impacted students productivity negatively due to some necessary materials not being available to them. Students aren’t able to learn effectively and gain the knowledge that music provides. Some school corporations have decided to cut music out of their curriculum entirely because it is too much to provide for. Many corporate boards have refused to look at the benefits of music in a young student’s education. While having a music program is extremely expensive, the gain of being exposed to music is much more important. Music has the ability to sculpt a young delinquent’s brain in a way that benefits the academic, social and emotional, corporal, and literacy and language aspects in their lives.

Music has been taught in schools across the United States for hundreds of years. Music classes may include those such as concert bands, choirs, and orchestras. In most elementary schools, a standard band class is a required course to take. However, as students gets older and continue their education, music becomes more scarcely recognized as important. Many school districts across the country are cutting funding for musical programs as well as eliminating music classes completely. High school students should be required to take at least one music course within their four years of high school education. Music teaches values, helps to improve test scores, as well as increasing usage throughout the brain.

The argument whether music should be taught in school has continued dividing both scholars and influential people to date. Both are backing their side of preference based on what they think is right and moral. People believe that music waste time that can be used to learn other important subjects such as maths and science. Music plays a significant role in improving student's grade since it develops numerous skills need to successes in school. Physical exposure to music classes and being actively involved in music stimulates the brain and changes the mind for the better. Despite numerous people disagree with the inclusion of music as part of school curriculum, its educational benefits are numerous because it helps the student with their academic success.

There is the understandable view that there is no money to have music be taught to students in our public-school system and that the focus must be on the core curricula. The unfortunate fact is that “at least 31 states provided less state funding per student in the 2014 school year than in the 2008 school year before the recession took hold” (Leachman et al.) In general, our school systems must be bolstered up with more resources, moreover, the way that music impacts a child’s ability to succeed in other school subjects proves that it is an imperative part of a child’s education.

The evidence makes clear the benefits of playing a musical instrument on students’ abilities to perform academically. For example, the Harmony Project is an after- school program that provides music lessons to children from underprivileged neighborhoods of California. Ninety-three percent of seniors in the program have graduated from high school in four years and gone on to college. This is truly incredible when one considers that the communities where the program takes place have dropout rates of over 50% (Turner). One explanation for this significant improvement is the direct impact playing music has on the students’ brains. A study conducted by Nina Kraus, a neurobiologist at Northwestern University, demonstrates this impact. By running tests on the program’s members, Kraus’ data suggests students who had studied music for two years were better at processing speech than those who had been in the program for only one year (Turner).

Music is a form of life that has a variety of purposes; even the human mind cannot comprehend them all. It should be considered a need but because of the economy and its hardship it has bestowed upon people, when school budgets tighten, music programs feel the pressure early and brace for a potential beating (Jennings). Our education system should allow children to express themselves through efficacious learning experiences, giving them the opportunity them to get in-touch with, and strengthen, their creativity (Lim and Chung, S60, Terrance). There is no doubt other programs includes this, but when it comes to music, people question its capability and it is considered “not cool”. Without music in our education programs,

Gouzouasis, P., Guhn, M., & Kishor, N. (2007, March). The predicative relationship between achievement and participation in music and achievement in core Grade 12 academic subjects. Music Education Research, 9(1), 81-92. doi:10.1090/14613800601127569. Peter Gouzouasis, Martin Guhn, and Nand Kishor, professors at the University of British Columbia, assert that art subjects are a great potential partner for academic studies because many of the skills one acquires from a music class are transferable to academic skills. They deliver their compelling argument through deductive reasoning and empirical research. To elaborate, they begin by discussing how little research has been done to support the theory that music skills benefit students academically; and then conduct their own experiment on 11th graders involved in music courses to predict the students’ scores as 12th graders. They then provide their empirical findings which show their scores to be considerably higher than non-music participants, by doing this they show readers hard evidence that proves their assertion. They do this to appeal to the reader's sense of logic in order to persuade them to realize the importance of music not only for its intricate beauty but for its blatant advantages it gives to students academically. The intended audience for this paper would be school administration and music educators because the authors urge administrators to see the benefits of music, while stating that music educators must be

Musical education is an important subject that is commonly overlooked and provides many benefits to children who study it. In chapter 1 titled, “Music and the Child - Why Music?”, there are many pieces of evidence pulled from different researches that suggest that musical education needs to be implemented into schools as a core subject. In 1999, Texas State University conducted a research study that provided evidence that studying piano can be connected to improvements in many core subjects such as math, science, and language. In addition, multiple other studies conducted by the University of Toronto and the Psychology Department at Stanford showed evidence that the study of music is capable of improving a child’s reading and language skills (Music and the Child). Overall, musical education has a large positive impact on a child’s education by providing them with skills that can better their performance in multiple areas of study. In chapter 1, I found the fourth bullet point on page 2.2 to be the most interesting. It states that music can improve a student’s self-esteem and confidence. I would have never guessed that music can have that kind of impact on a student. This fact is also very interesting because a student that is confident in himself may also be more likely to participate and be more involved in class. I found the sixth bullet point as the least interesting out of all seven. It states that music can benefit an above average student by providing them with more

It is important to understand how music education advocacy was started and how it has changed over the years. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, of New York is quoted saying the following about music education: “Knowledge is a form of capital, much of it formed by government investment in education...Politics has become a process that deliberately seeks to affect such outcomes as who thinks what, who feels how" (Mark). The significance of Moynihan’s statement set the foundation of music education advocacy in terms of a political standpoint. Mark also hits on the topic that Music Education should have it’s own advocate. By, having an individual advocate, they can better explain the importance of music education to the general public and policy makers.

Many schools have cut music programs due loss of funding, and loss of interest. Some believe it is a waste of time, and music is another expense on bills, a weight in our wallets. This is widely believed by parents and educators to be a big mistake. Music, whether taught in or outside of school, helps students excel in the following ways I have stated Music is beneficial to students in schools.

Schools with music programs have an estimated 90.2 percent graduation rate, as well as 93.3 percent attendance rate, this shows how much of a difference music can truly create in children’s life. Having music in one’s life benefits many listeners in several ways, such as the physical development of the brain, how it affects the public’s everyday life, and the atmosphere it creates. Many people in today’s world use music in a variety of ways, such as for a career, for therapy sessions, to keep your brain active and rapidly developing, and even for several different ways of symbolism. Lots of individuals speak through music when words can not speak for them, something that musicians create and mean hundreds of different things, just with the slight change of pitch, patterns or dynamic volume can mean something so incredible. The effects of music development have a positive impact on children and adults both, and the reasons listed below are exactly as follows: Music helps develop the brain, and can be used as a career path; pitch discrimination use in speech and in music; new languages and using music; the atmosphere of music from birth to death with symbolism.

Ever since music education has existed, there has been controversy over whether or not it should continue to exist. “...the Russian launching of Sputnik in 1957 spurred a renewed emphasis on science and math…” (Dillon). Because of this “renewed emphasis,” a higher demand for math and science teachers formed, and teachers of the arts struggled to find jobs, which meant that there were less music classes existing in schools. “...our education system is built on a 19th century model: the idea of academic ability and that the ‘most useful subjects’ that can ‘get you a job or into college’ are at the top of some educational hierarchy. Academic ability — not the capacity for creative thought — still dominates our view of intelligence and therefore our school budget priorities” (Mazzocchi). This is what makes it so easy for schools to decide to cut music programs. If music is not a subject valued enough by educators to be taught

Although music education does help increase productivity and overall education in schools, the decline of music can benefit some people. Not everyone in the school likes music. In fact, some people can’t even tolerate the thought of music. Either they don’t find any interest in it or they just are not good at it. People lose interest in things after a while if they don’t see themselves improving in any manner.

Music education is a subject in school that should be essential for all students. If students continued to expand their music education, they would have higher test scores in subjects such as math and English. Having a school system where everyone is able to benefit from a school wide requirement of music education. Music education will help improve student test scores and improve students language development.

Perhaps the largest distinction between humans and all other animals on earth is the ability to both create and appreciate fine art. The musical art form has existed for thousands of years, and has allowed different cultures to express themselves and connect with one another. The most primitive sounds were simply drum hits and clapping, but over time music has grown in sophistication. Now, complicated symphonies can be heard in halls all across the world, with a large variety of wind, brass and percussion instruments. This development of music over a large period of time reveals that music is fundamental to being human, that humans need music. Unfortunately, the U.S. education system is moving away from this very important human process. Now, officials see music as recreational and unnecessary. However, music education is a vital component of education because of its proven benefits to students. These benefits include not only higher academic performance as evidenced by higher test scores, but also specific improvements in job-skills.