Stop reading this paper and listen. Background noises, sounds, and silences flood the ear. All of these noises picked up subconsciously, are music. Music soothes the soul and recharges the brain. Training the mind and body in the ways of fine arts actually spikes cognitive brain development after time. This growth is heightened in the adolescence stage of a person’s life. Thus, teaching kids fine arts will help them blossom into fine young men and women. Although support of the arts department seems frivolous and irrelevant to an education, children should be taught music lessons at a young age in order to augment cognitive brain development, improve memory, and spark creativity.
The main method of getting music classes to kids is through their school program. When the funding to the arts is cut, potential brain expansion is hindered. Jenny Memmott, a key researcher from VH1’s Save the Music Foundation, states that “No Child Left Behind” has generally put an increase to science, reading, math, and writing instruction. However, financial backing to the arts department has dwindled (7). This decreased funding seems to be counterproductive, due to the results yielded from a study at The University of California. These experiments led by scientist Gordon Shaw, conclude that students who were given advanced music lessons scored 15% higher English scores over students given advanced English lessons. These same students scored 27% higher on math scores compared to students who received advanced math lessons (qtd. in Holden 1). Even pupils who received higher math and English instruction still did not out-score trained musicians. It seems clear that funding to the arts shouldn’t abate, but rather augment. The hard facts show that increa...
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Memmott, Jenny. "Research Has Proven That Access to a Quality Music Education:." VH1 Save the Music Foundation, 20 Oct. 2012. Web. 15 Jan. 2014.
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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.
Many people do not realize the positive effect that popular music has on children. At a young age one of the breakthroughs for children is music’s benefit for language development. According to the Children’s Music Workshop, the effect of music education on language development can be seen in the brain. Studies have indicated that musical training develops the left side of the brain known to be involved in processing language and can actually wire the brain’s circuits in specific ways. The relation between both music and language development can also have advantages children. Listening to music can also improve children test scores and IQ levels. Dr. Schellenberg found that a small increase in the IQs of six year olds who were given weekly vocal and piano lessons. This leads to the fact that music is very helpful when it comes to education. Professor Christopher Johnson revealed that students in elementary schools with better music education programs sc...
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Much too often in America today, modern music and art programs in schools are perceived to many as extracurricular activities rather than important subjects that are vital to a students learning and skill development. The truth of the matter is that encouraging music and art education in public schools has a much larger impact on student’s grades, academic performance, and the economy than the majority people realize. Within the next year city school budgets will be dropping by twenty five percent, and despite the fact that music and art programs have been showing a dramatic contribution to student’s learning, this substantial drop in funding for the programs will lead to no dedicated money for art or music programs (Mezzacappa). There is no doubt that a cut in funding for art programs will take a huge toll on students overall grades and test scores. Research has found that the studying of music and art facilitates learning in other subjects and enhances children’s skills in other areas (Brown). Furthermore, providing students with a creative outlet can do great justice in reducing the stress from many other classes and even offer insight for students in possible career paths involving the art field. The art industry today currently supports 4.1 million full-time jobs (Dorfman). By increasing the funding of music and art programs for students preschool through twelfth grade we can see a dramatic increase in the education of children across the United States, assist with skill development in young students, and greatly benefit the economy at the same time.
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The Importance of Arts Education Jane Alexander, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), once said, “Many children are missing out on something which gives their education context, gives their lives depth and meaning, and prepares them to be the future workforce.” This “something” that she spoke of is music and art education. Unfortunately, she is entirely correct. We are currently seeing a dramatic cut in arts education curriculum in our public schools due to the limited amount of time and funding. In many cases, budget cutbacks mean arts education cutbacks.
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Music education plays an enormous role in student’s overall well being, outweighing the costs of it. In 1994, Congress passed the Improving America’s Schools Act, concluding that “...the arts are forms of understanding and ways of knowing that are fundamentally important to education” (Ford, AdamMcMahon, Maureen). Congress recognized the importance of music education. Now the effort must be made to make a difference. If people really do want the best for the future, music education is key. Ramon Cortines, former chancellor of the New York City public schools stated, “We engage in the arts, we ought to teach the arts, because this is part of what it means to be human” (“Arts Education”). When people eventually realize this, the benefits will be vast.
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