The basic
statement is unlikely to be challenged by anyone involved in
education. In the sometimes harsh reality of limited time and funding
for instruction, however, the inclusion of the arts in every
student's education can sometimes be relegated to a distant wish
rather than an exciting reality.
It doesn't have to be that way!
All that's needed is a clear message sent to all those who must make
the hard choices involved in running a school or school system. The
basic message is that music programs in the schools help our kids and
communities in real and substantial ways. You can use the following
facts about the benefits of music education, based on a growing body
of convincing research, to move decision-makers to make the right
choices.
The benefits conveyed by music
education can be grouped in four categories:
* Success in
society
* Success in school
* Success in developing
intelligence
* Success in life
When presented with the many and
manifest benefits of music education, officials at all levels should
universally support a full, balanced, sequential course of music
instruction taught by qualified teachers. And every student will have
an education in the arts.
Benefit One: Success in
Society
Perhaps the basic reason that
every child must have an education in music is that music is a part
of the fabric of our society. The intrinsic value of music for each
individual is widely recognized in the many cultures that make up
American life &emdash; indeed, every human culture uses music to
carry forward its ideas and ideals. The importance of music to our
economy is without doubt. And the value of music in shaping
individual abilities and character are attested in a number of
places:
* Secondary students
who participated in band or orchestra reported the lowest lifetime
and current use of all substances (alcohol, tobacco, illicit drugs).
Texas Commission on Drug and Alcohol Abuse Report. Reported in
Houston Chronicle, January 1998
* "Music is a magical gift we must
nourish and cultivate in our children, especially now as scientific
evidence proves that an education in the arts makes better math and
science students, enhances spatial intelligence in newborns, and
let's not forget that the arts are a compelling solution to teen
violence, certainly not the cause of it!" Michael Greene, Recording
Academy President and CEO at the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards, February
2000.
* The U.S. Department of Education
lists the arts as subjects that college-bound middle and junior high
school students should take, stating "Many colleges view
participation in the arts and music as a valuable experience that
broadens students' understanding and appreciation of the world around
them. It is also well known and widely recognized that the arts
contribute significantly to children's intellectual development." In
addition, one year of Visual and Performing Arts is recommended for
college-bound high school students. Getting Ready for College Early:
A Handbook for Parents of Students in the Middle and Junior High
School Years, U.S. Department of Education, 1997
* The College Board identifies the
arts as one of the six basic academic subject areas students should
study in order to succeed in college. Academic Preparation for
College: What Students Need to Know and Be Able to Do, 1983 [still in
use], The College Board, New York
* The arts create jobs, increase
the local tax base, boost tourism, spur growth in related businesses
(hotels, restaurants, printing, etc.) and improve the overall quality
of life for our cities and towns. On a national level, nonprofit arts
institutions and organizations generate an estimated $37 billion in
economic activity and return $3.4 billion in federal income taxes to
the U.S. Treasury each year. American Arts Alliance Fact Sheet,
October 1996
* The very best engineers and
technical designers in the Silicon Valley industry are, nearly
without exception, practicing musicians. Grant Venerable, "The
Paradox of the Silicon Savior," as reported in "The Case for
Sequential Music Education in the Core Curriculum of the Public
Schools," The Center for the Arts in the Basic Curriculum, New York,
1989
Benefit Two: Success in
School
Success in society, of course, is
predicated on success in school. Any music teacher or parent of a
music student can call to mind anecdotes about effectiveness of music
study in helping children become better students. Skills learned
through the discipline of music, these stories commonly point out,
transfer to study skills, communication skills, and cognitive skills
useful in every part of the curriculum. Another common variety of
story emphasizes the way that the discipline of music study
&emdash; particularly through participation in ensembles
&emdash; helps students learn to work effectively in the school
environment without resorting to violent or inappropriate behavior.
And there are a number of hard facts that we can report about the
ways that music study is correlated with success in
school:
* "The term 'core
academic subjects' means English, reading or language arts,
mathematics, science, foreign languages, civics and government,
economics, arts, history, and geography." No Child Left Behind Act of
2002, Title IX, Part A, Sec. 9101 (11)
* A study of 237 second grade
children used piano keyboard training and newly designed math
software to demonstrate improvement in math skills. The group scored
27% higher on proportional math and fractions tests than children
that used only the math software. Graziano, Amy, Matthew Peterson,
and Gordon Shaw, "Enhanced learning of proportional math through
music training and spatial-temporal training." Neurological Research
21 (March 1999).
* In an analysis of U.S.
Department of Education data on more than 25,000 secondary school
students (NELS:88, National Education Longitudinal Survey),
researchers found that students who report consistent high levels of
involvement in instrumental music over the middle and high school
years show "significantly higher levels of mathematics proficiency by
grade 12." This observation holds regardless of students'
socio-economic status, and differences in those who are involved with
instrumental music vs. those who are not is more significant over
time. Catterall, James S., Richard Chapleau, and John Iwanaga.
"Involvement in the Arts and Human Development: General Involvement
and Intensive Involvement in Music and Theater Arts." Los Angeles,
CA: The Imagination Project at UCLA Graduate School of Education and
Information Studies, 1999.
* Students with
coursework/experience in music performance and music appreciation
scored higher on the SAT: students in music performance scored 57
points higher on the verbal and 41 points higher on the math, and
students in music appreciation scored 63 points higher on verbal and
44 points higher on the math, than did students with no arts
participation. College-Bound Seniors National Report: Profile of SAT
Program Test Takers. Princeton, NJ: The College Entrance Examination
Board, 2001.
* According to statistics compiled
by the National Data Resource Center, students who can be classified
as "disruptive" (based on factors such as frequent skipping of
classes, times in trouble, in-school suspensions, disciplinary
reasons given, arrests, and drop-outs) total 12.14 percent of the
total school population. In contrast, only 8.08 percent of students
involved in music classes meet the same criteria as "disruptive."
Based on data from the NELS:88 (National Education Longitudinal
Study), second follow-up, 1992.
* Data from the National Education
Longitudinal Study of 1988 showed that music participants received
more academic honors and awards than non-music students, and that the
percentage of music participants receiving As, As/Bs, and Bs was
higher than the percentage of non- participants receiving those
grades. NELS:88 First Follow-up, 1990, National Center for Education
Statistics, Washington DC
* Physician and biologist Lewis
Thomas studied the undergraduate majors of medical school applicants.
He found that 66% of music majors who applied to medical school were
admitted, the highest percentage of any group. 44% of biochemistry
majors were admitted. As reported in "The Case for Music in the
Schools," Phi Delta Kappan, February 1994
* A study of 811 high school
students indicated that the proportion of minority students with a
music teacher role-model was significantly larger than for any other
discipline. 36% of these students identified music teachers as their
role models, as opposed to 28% English teachers, 11% elementary
teachers, 7% physical education/sports teachers, 1% principals. D.L.
Hamann and L.M. Walker, "Music teachers as role models for
African-American students," Journal of Research in Music Education,
41, 1993
* Students who participated in
arts programs in selected elementary and middle schools in New York
City showed significant increases in self-esteem and thinking skills.
National Arts Education Research Center, New York University,
1990
Benefit three: Success in
Developing Intelligence
Success in school and in society
depends on an array of abilities. Without joining the intense ongoing
debate about the nature of intelligence as a basic ability, we can
demonstrate that some measures of a child's intelligence are indeed
increased with music instruction. Once again, this burgeoning range
of data supports a long-established base of anecdotal knowledge to
the effect that music education makes kids smarter. What is new and
especially compelling, however, is a combination of
tightly-controlled behavioral studies and groundbreaking neurological
research that show how music study can actively contribute to brain
development:
* In a study conducted
by Dr. Timo Krings, pianists and non-musicians of the same age and
sex were required to perform complex sequences of finger movements.
Their brains were scanned using a technique called "functional
magnetic resource imaging" (fMRI) which detects the activity levels
of brain cells. The non-musicians were able to make the movements as
correctly as the pianists, but less activity was detected in the
pianists' brains. Thus, compared to non-musicians, the brains of
pianists are more efficient at making skilled movements. These
findings show that musical training can enhance brain function.
Weinberger, Norm. "The Impact of Arts on Learning." MuSICa Research
Notes 7, no. 2 (Spring 2000). Reporting on Krings, Timo et al.
"Cortical Activation Patterns during Complex Motor Tasks in Piano
Players and Control Subjects. A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Study." Neuroscience Letters 278, no. 3 (2000): 189-93.
* "The musician is constantly
adjusting decisions on tempo, tone, style, rhythm, phrasing, and
feeling--training the brain to become incredibly good at organizing
and conducting numerous activities at once. Dedicated practice of
this orchestration can have a great payoff for lifelong attentional
skills, intelligence, and an ability for self-knowledge and
expression." Ratey John J., MD. A User's Guide to the Brain. New
York: Pantheon Books, 2001.
* A research team exploring the
link between music and intelligence reported that music training is
far superior to computer instruction in dramatically enhancing
children's abstract reasoning skills, the skills necessary for
learning math and science. Shaw, Rauscher, Levine, Wright, Dennis and
Newcomb, "Music training causes long-term enhancement of preschool
children's spatial-temporal reasoning," Neurological Research, Vol.
19, February 1997
* Students in two Rhode Island
elementary schools who were given an enriched, sequential,
skill-building music program showed marked improvement in reading and
math skills. Students in the enriched program who had started out
behind the control group caught up to statistical equality in
reading, and pulled ahead in math. Gardiner, Fox, Jeffrey and
Knowles, as reported in Nature, May 23, 1996
* Researchers at the University of
Montreal used various brain imaging techniques to investigate brain
activity during musical tasks and found that sight-reading musical
scores and playing music both activate regions in all four of the
cortex's lobes; and that parts of the cerebellum are also activated
during those tasks. Sergent, J., Zuck, E., Tenial, S., and MacDonall,
B. (1992). Distributed neural network underlying musical sight
reading and keyboard performance. Science, 257, 106-109.
* Researchers in Leipzig found
that brain scans of musicians showed larger planum temporale (a brain
region related to some reading skills) than those of non-musicians.
They also found that the musicians had a thicker corpus callosum (the
bundle of nerve fibers that connects the two halves of the brain)
than those of non-musicians, especially for those who had begun their
training before the age of seven. Schlaug, G., Jancke, L., Huang, Y.,
and Steinmetz, H. (1994). In vivo morphometry of interhem ispheric
assymetry and connectivity in musicians. In I. Deliege (Ed.),
Proceedings of the 3d international conference for music perception
and cognition (pp. 417-418). Liege, Belgium.
* A University of California
(Irvine) study showed that after eight months of keyboard lessons,
preschoolers showed a 46% boost in their spatial reasoning IQ.
Rauscher, Shaw, Levine, Ky and Wright, "Music and Spatial Task
Performance: A Causal Relationship," University of California,
Irvine, 1994
* Researchers found that children
given piano lessons significantly improved in their spatial- temporal
IQ scores (important for some types of mathematical reasoning)
compared to children who received computer lessons, casual singing,
or no lessons. Rauscher, F.H., Shaw, G.L., Levine, L.J., Wright,
E.L., Dennis, W.R., and Newcomb, R. (1997) Music training causes
long-term enhancement of preschool children's spatial temporal
reasoning. Neurological Research, 19, 1-8.
* A McGill University study found
that pattern recognition and mental representation scores improved
significantly for students given piano instruction over a three-year
period. They also found that self-esteem and musical skills measures
improved for the students given piano instruction. Costa-Giomi, E.
(1998, April). The McGill Piano Project: Effects of three years of
piano instruction on children's cognitive abilities, academic
achievement, and self-esteem. Paper presented at the meeting of the
Music Educators National Conference, Phoenix, AZ.
* Researchers found that lessons
on songbells (a standard classroom instrument) led to significant
improvement of spatial-temporal scores for three- and four-year-olds.
Gromko, J.E., and Poorman, A.S. (1998) The effect of music training
on preschooler's spatial-temporal task performance. Journal of
Research in Music Education, 46, 173-181.
* In the Kindergarten classes of
the school district of Kettle Moraine, Wisconsin, children who were
given music instruction scored 48 percent higher on spatial-temporal
skill tests than those who did not receive music training. Rauscher,
F.H., and Zupan, M.A. (1999). Classroom keyboard instruction improves
kindergarten children's spatial-temporal performance: A field study.
Manuscript in press, Early Childhood Research Quarterly.
* An Auburn University study found
significant increases in overall self-concept of at-risk children
participating in an arts program that included music, movement,
dramatics and art, as measured by the Piers-Harris Children's
Self-Concept Scale. N.H. Barry, Project ARISE: Meeting the needs of
disadvantaged students through the arts, Auburn University,
1992
Benefit four: Success in
Life
Each of us wants our children
&emdash; and the children of all those around us to achieve
success in school, success in employment, and success in the social
structures through which we move. But we also want our children to
experience "success" on a broader scale. Participation in music,
often as not based on a grounding in music education during the
formative school years, brings countless benefits to each individual
throughout life. The benefits may be psychological or spiritual, and
they may be physical as well:
* "Studying music
encourages self-discipline and diligence, traits that carry over into
intellectual pursuits and that lead to effective study and work
habits. An association of music and math has, in fact, long been
noted. Creating and performing music promotes self-expression and
provides self-gratification while giving pleasure to others. In
medicine, increasing published reports demonstrate that music has a
healing effect on patients. For all these reasons, it deserves strong
support in our educational system, along with the other arts, the
sciences, and athletics." Michael E. DeBakey, M.D., Leading Heart
Surgeon, Baylor College of Music.
* "Music has a great power for
bringing people together. With so many forces in this world acting to
drive wedges between people, it's important to preserve those things
that help us experience our common humanity." Ted Turner, Turner
Broadcasting System.
* "Music is one way for young
people to connect with themselves, but it is also a bridge for
connecting with others. Through music, we can introduce children to
the richness and diversity of the human family and to the myriad
rhythms of life." Daniel A. Carp, Eastman Kodak Company Chairman and
CEO.
* "Casals says music fills him
with the wonder of life and the 'incredible marvel' of being a human.
Ives says it expands his mind and challenges him to be a true
individual. Bernstein says it is enriching and ennobling. To me, that
sounds like a good cause for making music and the arts an integral
part of every child's education. Studying music and the arts elevates
children's education, expands students' horizons, and teaches them to
appreciate the wonder of life." U.S. Secretary of Education Richard
W. Riley, July 1999.
* "The nation's top business
executives agree that arts education programs can help repair
weaknesses in American education and better prepare workers for the
21st century." "The Changing Workplace is Changing Our View of
Education." Business Week, October 1996.
* "Music making makes the elderly
healthier.... There were significant decreases in anxiety,
depression, and loneliness following keyboard lessons. These are
factors that are critical in coping with stress, stimulating the
immune system, and in improved health. Results also show significant
increases in human growth hormones following the same group keyboard
lessons. (Human growth hormone is implicated in aches and pains.)"
Dr. Frederick Tims, reported in AMC Music News, June 2,
1999
* "Music education opens doors
that help children pass from school into the world around them a
world of work, culture, intellectual activity, and human involvement.
The future of our nation depends on providing our children with a
complete education that includes music." &emdash; Gerald Ford,
former President, United States of America
* "During the Gulf War, the few
opportunities I had for relaxation I always listened to music, and it
brought to me great peace of mind. I have shared my love of music
with people throughout this world, while listening to the drums and
special instruments of the Far East, Middle East, Africa, the
Caribbean, and the Far North and all of this started with the music
appreciation course that I was taught in a third-grade elementary
class in Princeton, New Jersey. What a tragedy it would be if we
lived in a world where music was not taught to children." H. Norman
Schwarzkopf, General, U.S. Army, retired
* "Music is about communication,
creativity, and cooperation, and, by studying music in school,
students have the opportunity to build on these skills, enrich their
lives, and experience the world from a new perspective." - Bill
Clinton, former President, United States of America
"Source: MENC&emdash;The
National Association for Music Education "Benefits of Music
Education" Brochure, Spring 2002". For further questions, contact
info@menc.org. This information is also available in a print brochure
(minimum order 25) for a small charge. To order, contact
mbrserv@menc.org