Keep Music Education in Our Schools
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Over the past 10 years or so, many school programs have been cut to reduce budgets and save money. Those hardest hit are physical education, art and music classes. The tragedy of these curriculum adjustments is that they rob children of the opportunity to learn through different mediums.
Elementary school music classes compliment and build on other skills children are learning in their regular classrooms. These include:
- Math
- Reading
- Social interaction
- Small motor skills
- Large motor skills
Music is written in "measures," or small blocks of which there are a certain number of beats. If a song is in 3/4 time, that means there will be 3 beats per measure, with a quarter note counting as a single beat. Children can learn counting and fractions through musical instruction. These skills may make more sense, and will be more enjoyable for children when learned in this medium.
Improvement in reading can also result from regular classes. Children learn not only how to read the words of a song that they will sing, but also to read notes and understand the connection between their placement of on the staff (treble or bass clef) and tonal variations. The ability to read music will be an advantage if your child is interested in choir, theatre and/or acting.
When creating tunes in a large group, children learn to take turns, listen for their cue, and respect personal property (the instruments). All of these social skills are important to overall development. As with any artistic expression, making music can help improve a child's self-esteem and build confidence. Developmentally or physically disabled kids generally respond very positively to such classes. Some studies show that it helps breathing and speech disabilities improve.
Both small and large motor skills are advanced through elementary school music instruction. Use of hands and fingers is necessary for playing a recorder, xylophone, drums, cymbals and other small percussive instruments. Often, the classes involve basic dancing instruction, foot stomping, and hand clapping. Who wouldn't have fun in an environment like that?
Helpful Links
- Music Curriculum for K-8
- Goodbye Do, Re Mi
Alternative music instruction plans and ideas - Music and the Mind
Important information about how the study of music increases intelligence and may result in greater life success - Elementary School Choirs
How to successfully organize and elementary school choir - National Association for Music Education
School music performances are positive experiences in a number of ways. First, it gives the child an opportunity to display the work he or she is doing in class. Second, it can be a positive bonding experience between a child and his or her caregivers. Third, performances are usually festive and fun. Decorative art work, plus cookies and punch at the end, results in an afternoon or evening that will not soon be forgotten.
Self-expression through music allows creative outlets that some kids may not otherwise receive. For families that cannot afford private lessons or other extracurricular activities, programs in public schools can help expand the horizons for these less fortunate children.
If your child's school district is considering budget cuts that will affect music instruction, get involved! Write to the superintendent about the myriad of benefits these classes have for young children. Offer to volunteer to help out, if you can. Spear-head some fundraising activities to help with shortfalls. Get in contact with your state legislators and fight hard to keep music in the schools. Don't give up or resign yourself to the loss of programming.
Elementary School Chorus Performance
Elementary School Concert
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Comments? Share Your Positive Music Instruction Stories Below
Thank you, Patty!
Terrific hub, Steph! Music and the arts are so important, they give children the opportunity to express themselves. Some children excel in the creative arts and not in the academic area. They need that opportunity. :)
Thanks Amy Jane - I completely agree! I think some children really need this outlet (actually all do, but some more than others!)
Boy, I can hardly keep up with you Steph. Your hub about the obsolescence of the film camera made me both yearn for the good old days at the same time appreciate todays technological advances.
I totally agree with you about music and feel sad about the cutting out of such programs in school as a beneficiary of an American music teacher. I learned to play the trumpet in school and band was one of my favorite activities. And that's how I met my wife. See?!!
PenmanZee, of course! How wonderful you met your wife through band! I played the clarinet (though not so well). Piano was my passion. Thanks for reading and your kind comments, as always.
Thank you for this hub. No Child Left Behind gets me down, so it's great to see people care about the arts being taught in school.
Great Point Here. In Florida they want to mandate x hours of physical education in a day. This will in essence kill arts programs. In trying to do good they do bad. Personally both my kids play classical piano. I play guitar. I think it promotes thought, I know many surgeon's who play wonderfully. Great Hub.
I know and have experienced the value of music and arts in my life. They have taught me and molded my character and brought out the best in me. In our preschool, we truly incoporate arts and music all over the program. And the kids love it. :)
the performing arts can do wonders for kids and it's great to have you on our side! thank you for encouraging people to make a stand.
Ripplemaker and Dayzeebee - thank you so much for your comments! I know that the performing arts are very important to both of you! I was a musician growing up and I can't agree more! In fact, I witnessed my children in vacation bible school last summer put together and perform in a musical in one week's time and they were SO EXCITED!! It truly was heart-warming to see. Music is a vital part of education and I hope that our educators remember that!
Frankly, the loss of music programs is a tragedy and we haven't even begun to feel how much. I fear that lots of little Mozarts and John Lenin's aren't even going to be exposed to music when their little brains are still forming and ripe to really be grounded well. No Child Gets Ahead... er... No Child Left Behind is making the horizons of our children very, very small.
PHysical ed is next. My kids actually spend so much time doing writing excercise in their PE class it drives me nuts. IT's to help increase test scores, I get it, keep cramming reading and writing down their throats every period so the school can get paid, but, wow.
Anyway, awesome hub and I hope everyone in America reads this and writes their Congressional reps to do something before we have nothing but oldies on the radio.
Thank you so much for your comment, Shadesbreath! It is indeed a tragedy that we may not even know what we are losing before it is gone. How many parents cannot afford to send their kids to private music lessons, yet they blossom and find their talent in the public school system? You are so right that PE could be next, and probably is well on its way. I am poised and ready as soon as I hear the rumblings in my neighborhood, or even in my homestate. We cannot stand by and allow this to happen.
I think it is a good idea for all kids it will help them focuss on some stuff but again it is good for kids.
We are very fortunant to have a school system where we live that still enforces the arts. It is so sad that the arts are the first ones to suffer. Thank you for writing on this.
Hi RGraf, yes - we are lucky too that music education is still my kids' schools. But one worries about budget cuts and what they may mean, particularly in these economic times.
i think this is absolutly brilliant!!! i am a great believer in music education and aspire to be a teacher myself. i just wish those idiots on the BOE could read all of this and just reolize how important this is to child development.
Hi Courtney- thanks for the great comment! Obviouly, I totally agree with your thoughts! Spread this hub around - email it to other and perhaps we can change things just a bit.
Cheers, Stephanie
excellent hub, music is really important to be included in the curriculum, it plays an important role with the development of the students.
Thank you midnightbliss - I am actually thinking about starting a piano teaching school (I played for many years and studied at the University) just to keep kids going with music education. :)
To see a child advance in wisdom is not equivalent to seeing him get high grades in school. The measure of wisdom is not the child’s ability to answer quizzes and test questions. Wisdom lies in the child’s ability to absorb the tool taught to him and then apply these in real life.
Hi there , yes every body needs to know how music can stimulate a persons mood
experiments with unborn children show if the mother is listening to classic music
like vivaldi or mozart to mame a few the children coming more relaxed and peacful into this world this is how music will effect a persons mood and his soul :))
anyway juz wanna tell this is a nice hub
pls come by and visit myn as well thnx
c ya greetz
I am a result of a lacking music program. Picked up a tenor saxphone when I was 13 by myself. Taking some music classes in college to learn, but had no roots. I support you in you rmovement to better music education in schools. Thank you for the article.
Absolutely, right on! This hub is so vitally needed and well-received. There is nothing like music that inpires children to "want to learn". They naturally gravitate to its instictive rhythm. Without music in the education program, our children will suffer immeasurably. I couldn't agree with you more on how important it is to provide kids with the opportunity to be exposed and involved with music. Thank you so much for publishing this wonderfully rich and inspiring hub.
Hi Pauia, I love reading enthusiastic responses like yours! As a former musician myself, I can attest to its strong influence on me growing up. All my kids love to sing and dance.
Thanks for the wonderful comment, Steph
I totally agree with this hub, music and all art can not be ignored in education. There is so much emphasis of literary and logical thinking (English and maths) that schools ignore vital aspects of creativity, which is essential for problem solving, critical thinking skills and higher order thinking which all relate directly to Maths and English yet have their roots in Arts and science. Great hub and continue to promote music in education as I will. Just on a side not, music and art formed through history and across many cultures thus formed us as human beings. It came before literacy and helped form the structures of literacy. It is vital for all children to learn and they have fun learing it ^^.
Stephanie,
I enjoyed reading your article. As a music educator I always look for articles in support of the arts education. I am currently doing reserach in regards to the utilization of music in the K-3 classroom. In part of my introduction I am going to include your statement as to how school music classes compliment and build on other skills children learn in the regular classroom. i and need to ask when did you write this article. I
A comment from one musician's point of view (which, of course, probably is very different from others'): Music education has shown to have wonderful effects on students' learning, etc. However, I'd point out that there's a potential problem using kids who get professional training as evidence that music should return to the classroom. If strong, well-trained musicians teach in the school system (as they do privately and in music schools), then there's likely to be a positive effect on the children. But if music is just going to be an addition to the standard Reading-'Riting-'Rithmatic curriculum to be taught by teachers who don't have a strong musical background, I fear that the expected benefits will never materialize.
I wholeheartedly agree. Music has so much depth to it, so many educational dimensions. It is a type of learning, after all. I remember how invested I was in music, and by the 10th grade, I had to choose another pasttime because it was cut from the school budget. I still wonder how much further I would have gone with my instruments if my public school continued to offer instruction.
Interesting Post!
Music definately helps improve student's overall performance in other academic subjects as well as life.
I just published a Hub about what one woman has done here in the San Diego area regarding children, music, education and performance.
It's an amazing and TRUE story, IMHO.
Patty Inglish, MS says:
2 years ago
Excellent!