The average high school student has a list of classes that they absolutely must complete in order to graduate. This required list usually includes such courses as Algebra, Geometry, English Composition, Biology, etc. The idea that anything, let alone playing a musical instrument, should be added to this list of requirements is flawed and harmful to the student's development. Requiring all high school students to play a musical instrument would cause problems at both the school corporation and student level. At the school corporation and government level, the addition of musical instruments for all students would be far too costly. And at the student level, they already have enough requirement to worry about as it is.
The first and most immediate concern with requiring all high school students to play a musical instrument is
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However, even if either of these options were viable, it wouldn't be a beneficial use of resources. The field of arts is very broad and each student has many different arts courses that they may wish to pursue more than others. As it stands in most high schools, students have the option to take a certain number of elective courses each semester. By requiring them to play a musical instrument you take away time that they could be using to pursue an arts course that is more fulfilling to them such as pottery or theater. The reasoning behind wanting to require the learning of a musical instrument is understandable. After all, the exploration of arts can be very stimulating to the student and studies have even shown that playing a musical instrument is correlated with better grades in other courses. However, making an art course required is counter-intuitive because it adds rigidity and stifling requirements to a field that should be encouraging students to explore and discover
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.
The American school system has been put under an immense amount of stress in the past few years. Funding has been moved, held back, and/or taken away from various classes. However, one of the largest fights for funding is found in music education. Without funding, music classes are unable to properly educate children in music. With more and more money being taken away, the youngest generation is growing up with less musical intelligence.
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...
As a students who takes full year of art every year, everyone will expect me to say ‘Yes, I think one credit of Fine Art have to be mandatory’. After seeing so many people doing nothing in a class, I think instead of making Fine Art mandatory, it would be better if we encourage students to
We all believe that extracurricular activities in schools can be beneficial, right? In schools, we currently have optional extracurricular courses such as football, art, music, and more. We also have mandatory health and health science courses such as physical education and health and nutrition. Why is physical education a required course and music only an extra curricular activity? Research clearly shows that learning to play an instrument is greatly benefitting our students in the same way that physical education is having a positive impact on them. Why would we, by not requiring middle school students to take a music course, refrain from even more advancement, and withhold the help we could easily give. I propose that we make music
Music plays a major role in life for most people. It can soothe and excite, encourage sleep and encourage dancing, we can sing to it and ponder it. There are so many different uses of music and so many mediums through which to play it such as Pandora, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Beyond that, more songs every day there are new songs being written. Statistics show that ninety-five percent of all Americans think that music is a core part of a balanced and well-rounded education. The same study showed that ninety-three percent of Americans thought music belonged in the public schooling system, and seventy-nine percent even suggested that music education should be mandatory for all students. Still, studies show that a staggering twenty percent of high school students choose
Many states throughout North America don’t require art classes such as art, dance, drama, and music. While many other states require credits of art classes in order to graduate from high school. Schools in New York City note the problem they have by not requiring art classes in high school. Administrators from New York schools admit that “low income areas in NYC look to cut out art education because of tight budgets” (Raleigh). Many schools are making art classes either optional or taking them out completely because they don’t have the funds to keep them. The many schools throughout North America that require art credits to graduate from high school note the problem the rest of the schools have by making them optional or taking them out altogether. Many people say that art classes teach kids many skills
With school budget cuts, and no music instruments, more and more people are beginning to realize the benefits of having music in education. Providing music as part of education helps develop intelligence that leads to greater success in school and in life. Everyone from VH1 Save The Music to The National Association For Music Education agree that, “Every student in the nation should have an education in the arts.” These two companies are doing everything they can to get out the information about music, and the importance of resorting music education as part of the core curriculum.
“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.
Kids shouldn't be forced to play an instrument at school because kids have other things to do. "Playing an instrument requieres a lot of practice." (Source 3). Many children have responsibilities at home, not including homework and other extra-corricular activities, and to accumulate all these things and put all this work on top of a child's shoulders would be cruel and unfair, especcially if the child doesn't want to play the instrument. "Families want their children to focus more on school work." (Source 3). Some teachers out there exagerrate on the amount of homework they assign to their students, therefore if they add all this homework and so many hours of practice, the child would be exhausted almost everyday.
middle of paper ... ... Music was not taught in the high school I was in. To satisfy my interest in learning about music and how to play musical instruments, I had to find a source of education other than school; a great depiction in agreement with Graff’s claim that students are being limited by not considering their interests when creating curricula (Graff 197). In conclusion, education is broader than just falling into what the contemporary school system has to offer. Both Gatto and Graff proved this by explaining how conforming students to certain perspectives of education limits their potential in other educational branches that interest the students.
In education today, art studies are not often viewed as a priority for students and they very frequently get cut from school’s curriculum due to a lack of proper funding. Howeve...
...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.
Many students enjoy playing instruments and consider playing them in their future. When they get a chance to start practicing at a young age and get the practice they need from school it helps them do better. Electives give students another perspective at looking at things and allows them to divert themselves from core classes for a bit. They give students a break from doing school work but also allows them to focus on something that they find interesting and want to focus on. Taking electives away would cause an end to students being able to show their talents and they would become
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.