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Music in Education
Music in education is essential to our children because it increases their listening skills and is a common
method of communication for cultures worldwide.
Music is Education
There are schools attempting to eliminate teaching musical arts to our children. The board of
education claims they must provide education by concentrating on the basic academic courses, but what
they don't realize is that music is a major part of basic education. We must not allow them to pull the
teaching of music out of our school curriculums because music is an essential form of communication. Our
children do not have to be fluent in the arts to receive the value of broad exposure to the different musical
dialogues. Deprivation of a very valuable part of education occurs if we do not teach them to appreciate a
wide variety of music.
Metaphorically speaking, we often associate the terms language and grammar with the term
music. This association leads us to believe that music is a form of language, possibly because no symbol
system other than language has the same potential as music of infinite productivity and precision. It takes
a multitude of directions and phonetic-type symbolism to produce a pleasant sounding musical
composition. This relates very closely to the requirements of everyday language. The primary objective of
any spoken language is to convey a person's thoughts in a comprehensible fashion, but we must remember
that everyone thinks and comprehends everything differently.
Musical language contains vast quantities of words to help people understand how original
composers intended to play a specific piece. Musical language also has directions that allow and encour...
... middle of paper ...
...one be capable of accomplishing what just one musical composition can
communicate when we teach our children to appreciate music. With all available forms of
communication, one should never forget that listening carefully to music--as we should listen to others
speak--can clarify the true meanings of all languages.
We should all strive to include intuition and intellect into language of any form. Intellect enlarges
our range of instincts through newly absorbed information and enables us to reflect and analyze all forms of
language. If communication is the purpose for language, we must then realize that speech is not the only
form of communication, for life without smiles, hugs, sign language, and even music would be very
unfulfilling. We must continue to educate our children in the musical arts and teach them yet another form
of communication.
Many schools around the country are cutting their music program because of budget cuts in their counties. The arts for some reason are always the first to be cut; apparently the school doesn’t think they are essential to their students learning. Schools try to focus on the more important academic classes because of the high testing standards they must now meet. (Nesoff 2003) This is not just happening in poor school districts it is happening in large districts across the country including magnet schools for the arts: “When Albert Margolis and his wife attended the final music program for their son's kindergarten class in May, they were shocked when a teacher stood up after the performance and announced that the music program was cut indefinitely…Bathgate Elementary School in Mission Viejo in California's affluent Orange County, is a magnet school for the arts…” (Nesoff 2003) When magnet schools for the arts start cutting music you know there is a problem. The problem is the schools do not know the importance of music and the arts and how necessary they are for children to grow and become cultured in our society.
There has yet to be a culture discovered which lacks music. Making music is seen historically to be as fundamental as the characteristically human activities as drawing and painting. Many even go so far as to compare music to language and claim that music functions as a "universal language." But it is rarely the same music, however, that all peoples respond to. What is it that we are responding to when we listen to music? Strictly speaking, music is not a language, (1) because it has neither outside referents nor easily detectable meaning. Ludwig Wittgenstein explains that although we understand music in a similar way as we understand language, music is not a language because we still cannot communicate through music as we can through language. (2) More recently, Susanne Langer argues that although we understand music as symbol, because we are so caught up in seeing symbolic form function like language we tend to want to make music into a language. But, Langer argues, music is not a kind of language (3) because the significance of music lies not in w...
Music is one of the most powerful and influential language which to many people in
Throughout history music has played an important role in society, whether it was Mozart moving people with his newest opera or the latest album from the Beatles. Where would society be today without music? With schools cutting their music programs, the next Mozart may not get his chance to discover his amazing talent. Music programs are essential to education. To fully understand this one must understand how music helps the human body, why schools have cut music programs, and why people should learn music.
Before addressing the need for music instruction in our schools I would like to briefly examine the need for education of any kind. Education is a means of making sure our society has a given set of knowledge. The set of knowledge we perceive ourselves as needing changes based on our surroundings and the issues we are dealing with. In American education's early history we perceived ourselves as needing a set of knowledge that included a common language and common view of history, as well as knowledge of those things with which we would interact every day. In many ways early public education was more a means of social control than an altruistic endeavor. In today's climate we see ourselves as having more diverse needs in our education...
MENC- The National Association for Music Education (1991). Growing up complete: the imperative for music education: The report of the national commission on music education. Retrieved November 20, 2004 from http://www.menc.org/publication/
Music evaluated as a subjects that is many times overlooked. If a school seems to have financial trouble, then music and art programs are the first to get cut. Essentially, students do not need them to succeed and they are just hobbies. This is the mindset that many school boards have towards music education.
“Recent studies show that being involved in music classes makes it easier to learn other subjects and improve skills in other classrooms” (Brown, “The Benefits of Music Education”). A lot of people tend to overlook how much music education has an impact on the success of a student. Because of this, schools should be required to offer fine arts and music classes as electives for the students. Not only will this improve the students test scores, but it will also give the students a broader imagination and more creativity in and out of the classroom. In a lot of schools, fine arts and musical classes are the first to go when there are budget cuts. “Seventy-one percent of the nation’s fifteen thousand school districts have cut instructional hours spent on music and other subjects” (“State of the arts: should music and art classes be brushed aside”). Not only is it affecting the teachers who have specialized in the study of fine arts, it is affecting all of the students and parents who are actively involved in these programs. “Johnson, professor of music education and music therapy and associate dean of the School of Fine Arts at KU, found jumps of twenty-two percent in English test scores and twenty percent in math scores at elementary schools with superior music education” (Lynch “Music Boosts Test Scores”). With that being said, schools should be required to offer music and fine arts classes as an elective for their students.
Brown, L. L. (2012, May 25). The Benefits of Music Education. Retrieved September 29, 2017.
Exposer to music is crucial to young children’s brain development. Not only does it develop otherwise unused areas of the brain, like the auditory cortex, it increases children's future intellectual enjoyment level (Matter). Music at an early age enhances sensitivity to sound and pitch, which can lead to better phonological and reading skills (Moreira). Without a music program in schools students do not get the full exposure to music and music theory that is needed for brain development.
In one school district, administrators needed to make a budget cut of about $150,000. Immediately, they turned to their music programs and cut them, firing five music teachers in the process. They did not realize that there were over 2,000 students involved in the music programs. All of these students were then placed in other classes, increasing the class sizes and forcing the school to add 29 more classrooms and teachers. They ended up spending $192,000 total, instead of cutting the original $150,000 (Dorita, Coen, & Miller, 1994). It has been over two decades and many schools and administration still do not understand or see the importance of music in schools. Music education not only benefits student’s academics, but also helps student’s social life and improves brain function as well.
When teachers are planning their classroom activities they need to include music. Music is a vital part of the learning process. “A music-rich experience for children of singing, listening and moving is really bringing a very serious benefit to children as they progress into more formal learning,” says Mary Luehrisen, executive director of the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) Foundation, a not-for-profit association that promotes the benefits of making music.
...ls. There is so much that can be gained from arts education. It is imperative that music and art education remains in public schools. Because, even though it has been said many times before, the fact remains that the arts enrich us all.
Friedrich Nietzsche once said, “Without music, life would be a mistake”. Music is almost as old as the human race and is as much a part of it as anything. So why would anyone choose to get rid of it? An Increasing number of schools across the nation are deciding to cut music education programs. This includes band, orchestra, choir, and general music classes. In 1991, 55.4 percent of public school eighth-graders took part in music classes at school. In 2004, this figure was just 49.1 percent. Money plays a huge role in this statistic: “...when funds are scarce, arts courses are usually the first to be dropped from a school’s curriculum” (“Arts Education”). While many argue that music education is an unnecessary cost for schools, it improves student’s overall well being.
Even when children learn music they able to listen, sing, dance, create movement. Listening to music draw out emotions, and playing music can be just like communicating emotions. Some people find this a very powerful experience. “ Music enriches the lives of students and should be considered a necessary part of education.”