For those
who value knowledge, the learning process is perpetual throughout
life's time and includes: (1) the ability to think, and therefore,
value and discriminate, (2) the ability to feel, and therefore,
become sensitive to aesthetic qualities in life, and (3) the courage
to act, and therefore, translate those abilities to think and feel
into overt behavior. The study of music, because it includes
cognitive, aesthetic and experiential participation advances these
attributes.
Musical training creates a respect
and desire for continuing aesthetic experiences, and the ability to
react positively, listen responsively, and participate
enthusiastically in an artistically sensitive manner. Music study
promotes positive interpersonal attributes and participation enables
one to be empathetic with people of differing social and ethnic
backgrounds. Music study encourages students to demonstrate mature
attitudes and positive values because of shared experiences in highly
structured activities that are responsive to the emotional
commonalities in life.
While music participation enhances
intellectual development, it is an activity that is extremely broad
in its capacity to include every child: the poor, ethnic minorities,
children of the inner cities, the handicapped, and the highly gifted.
It does this at all levels from pre-birth through adulthood with
continuing life-long programs. Music study helps each student
understand him/herself as a person. It assists in the development of
positive attitudes and keener insights toward others within the world
community.
In addition to advancing personal
competencies in music performance, the study of music includes
improvisation, conducting, composing, arranging, analysis, history,
varied repertoire, as well as other skills, where students are
exposed to other arts, the sciences and the humanities. The study of
music helps students approach life in a positive, imaginative, and
enthusiastic manner and the schooled musician evidences the personal
qualities of leadership, intellectual curiosity, and social
commitment.
The task of structuring and
managing a musical environment in which individuals, regardless of
ability level, positively experience, successfully achieve, and
hence, come to value the art of music, demands a breadth of knowledge
and skills, as well as high levels of perception and sensitivity. All
music study should be based upon an important yet extremely simple
premise—that every person involved as a learner ought to have the
best and most complete instruction possible. This premise includes a
commitment to the subject of music and its use with people. The
strength of this commitment is evidenced by academic and social
behaviors in life, both in and out of the music environment, and is
characterized by diligence in the pursuit of musical and academic
excellence and active dedication to the improvement of the quality of
life.
The acquisition and development of
these abilities requires an intellectual and experiential commitment
that is realized in daily living and is maintained and strengthened
during formal and informal music study continuing throughout one’s
lifetime.