Why is music
important? Why should every child study music in school? Almost
everyone who has made a major contribution to educational thought
since Plato has agreed that music should be an integral part of the
basic education of every young person. So why are we still trying to
answer these questions? Because some people view music not as a
subject for serious study but merely as a form of entertainment.
Others believe that it can be learned well enough outside school.
Still others see value in music but simply don’t regard it as a high
priority.
Educators generally agree that
there are five basic fields of study—mathematics, languages and
literature, physical sciences, social studies, and the arts. No one
can claim to be educated who does not have a reasonable acquaintance
with all five. Every person should have the ability to perform, to
create, and to listen to music with understanding. To achieve that
end, every student should have access to a comprehensive, balanced,
and sequential program of music study in school.
Recent research has suggested that
music instruction can have a positive effect on the functioning of
the brain in young people and can offer other far-reaching
educational and developmental benefits. These results deserve our
attention, but the most basic reason for studying music is that music
is intrinsically worthwhile. It is valuable in itself. It is
important.
Still, not everything that is
valuable and important can be included in the school curriculum. Why
should music be? There are many reasons. Here are only a few:
1. One of the most fundamental and
generally accepted purposes of education has always been to transmit
the cultural heritage of a group to succeeding generations. And music
is one of the most powerful, the most compelling, and the most
glorious manifestations of every cultural heritage. The fundamental
and pervasive role that music plays in the entertainment business
sometimes blinds people to the even more fundamental and pervasive
role that it plays throughout human culture. Because of the central
position that music occupies among the core behaviors of human
beings, any student who is allowed to leave school without studying
music has been cheated just as surely as if he or she had been
allowed to leave school without studying mathematics or science.
2. Another purpose of education is
to help students to achieve their potential. Musical potential is one
of the basic abilities that exist in every person. It can best be
developed if study is begun at an early age and continued through
adolescence. Anyone whose musical potential remains undeveloped,
which happens too often, is deprived of some of the most satisfying
and rewarding experiences that life has to offer. Schools should give
students opportunities to test the limits of their potential in as
many domains of human endeavor as possible. The more such
opportunities are available, the more likely it is that students’
lives will be as full and rich as possible.
3. We are surrounded by music
every day. If we are content to wallow indiscriminately in the
superficiality and banality of popular culture, then there may be no
need to study music. But just beneath the surface layer of trivial
music, to which we are involuntarily exposed on a daily basis, there
is a wondrous and incredibly diverse realm of profound and engaging
music where, once the barriers of unfamiliarity and bias have been
stripped away, exquisite beauty and enjoyment are readily accessible
to everyone. The formal study of music can unlock this gate. It can
increase the satisfaction that students derive from music by enabling
them to understand and enjoy more sophisticated and more complex
music. Anyone can “enjoy” music at a rudimentary level, but
sequential study can sharpen students’ perceptions, raise their
levels of appreciation, and expand their musical horizons.
4. One of the things that schools
teach implicitly is that every question has a right answer. But
outside the school the most important problems facing society seldom
have clear-cut answers. These problems do not lend themselves to the
formulaic, step-by-step solutions that we are taught to apply in
school. Music is different from the other basic disciplines in that
it does not reflect a preoccupation with right answers. It tolerates
and accommodates the ambiguities with which life is filled. It
teaches us to cope with the subjective. In this respect music is more
like life itself than are the other disciplines. Music brings a
balance to the curriculum that can help to offset what might
otherwise be a distorted view of problem-solving in the real world.
5. Every student should have a
chance to succeed in something. Music in school can prevent drop-outs
by providing opportunities for success for some students who have
difficulty with other disciplines in the curriculum. For some
students music can make school tolerable. Most music teachers have
known students who remained in school solely because of the joy and
satisfaction they received from participating in music. Only in music
class were their talents appreciated, their contributions respected,
and their achievements valued.
6. Most important of all, music
exalts the human spirit. It enhances the quality of life. The vast
and unique ability of music to improve the quality of life has too
often been underemphasized or overlooked entirely in discussions of
the value of music study. Music transforms the human experience. It
brings joy and pleasure to men, women, and children in every society
and every culture. It brings us solace in the ordinary activities of
daily life, and it’s an indispensable adjunct to both our happiest
and our most solemn occasions. It represents one of the most basic
instincts in human beings. That’s why it has played such a important
role in every known civilization. And that’s why it will continue to
do so as far into the future as anyone can see. The only question is
whether we want to limit access to music knowledge and skills to an
elite few or whether we want to make them available to everyone to
appreciate and enjoy. I hope that the answer is obvious.
I’m tired of excuses from school
administrators trying to explain why their schools can’t offer good
music programs. And the excuse I’m most tired of is the claim that
there is not enough time in the school day for music. That’s
nonsense. Lack of time is a pseudo-problem. It’s a false issue. A
lack of will is masquerading as a lack of time. There are excellent
schools all around us that have no trouble finding time for music and
can serve as models. If time is not a problem in school A, why should
it be a problem in school B? Of all the resources necessary to run a
school, time is the only resource that is allocated with absolute
equality to every school everywhere.
Another frequent claim is that the
schedule won’t allow music instruction. That’s equally absurd. Who’s
running our schools anyway? Is it the schedule, or is it educators?
Is our highest priority the schedule, or is it the students? Should
we begin with an arbitrary schedule and then try to fit in
educational experiences if and when we can? Or should we begin by
identifying what we want kids to know and be able to do and then
figure out how to make that possible? Again, there are good schools
everywhere that have no trouble in scheduling music. We have only to
look around us.
When asked to cite their most
memorable experiences in school, an extraordinary number of adults as
well as students cite musical experiences. They typically describe
the electrifying chill that flows up the spine during an exquisitely
emotional performance, the uniquely close fellowship that develops
with other students in an ensemble, the friendship and mentoring of a
particular music teacher, a cherished opportunity to perform a solo,
or the magnificent feeling of accomplishment one experiences after
overcoming daunting challenges to achieve an ardently sought musical
goal. Education is what we have left over when we have forgotten the
things we learned in school. Treasured musical experiences are often
among the most unforgettable events of our school years and, at the
same time, they lay the groundwork for a continuous flow of
pleasurable experiences throughout life. Music makes a difference in
people’s lives.
Perhaps the greatest threat to
school music programs today comes from principals and other
decision-makers who did not experience challenging and rewarding
music programs themselves while in school. They don’t realize what a
good music program can do for a child, for a school, and for a
community. It would be a terrible disservice to society, as well as
to the individuals involved, to deprive yet another generation of
educational and political leaders of the enormous satisfaction and
joy that can come from participation in a high-quality music program.
Advocacy is an activity that music
teachers have never sought to engage in but must nevertheless. Our
most potent allies are the parents of our students, who are well
positioned to bring effective pressure on elected decision-makers. In
addition, we must mobilize all of our natural allies at every level
in support of strong school music programs. These natural allies
include other educators, amateur and professional artists, college
and university professors, sympathetic politicians, and graduates of
our programs, as well as every group and every individual who
considers himself or herself a supporter of the arts.
In many places, the traditional
emphasis on humanistic values in education has become badly distorted
in recent years as the emphasis has shifted toward short-term,
narrowly mechanical objectives. Too often schools have neglected
important long-term goals in seeking to achieve fashionable
short-term goals. It is not the central purpose of education, for
example, to help the student to get a job. A broadly educated person
will find a job, but a narrow focus on job training ignores the very
skills that employers most desire: the ability to think clearly and
the ability to communicate effectively. Employers want workers who
are familiar with the five basic fields of study; they prefer to
provide their own job-specific training. And the personal skills most
valued by employers—creativity, flexibility, discipline, and the
ability to work cooperatively with others—are all skills emphasized
in music.
Neither is it the purpose of
education to prepare students for the manufacture and marketing of
consumer goods. Young people must not be treated merely as pawns on
the gigantic chessboard of international economic competition. And it
is certainly not the purpose of education to prepare students to pass
standardized examinations. The larger, true purpose of education is
the pursuit of truth and beauty, the development of human capacities,
and the improvement of the quality of life. And nothing does more
than music to contribute to that purpose. It is shortsighted and
misguided to emphasize preparing students to earn a better living at
the expense of preparing them to live a better life.
A nation is judged by posterity
not by the strength of its army, nor by its trade surpluses and
deficits, nor by its students’ scores on standardized tests, but
principally by its contributions to the arts and humanities. That has
been true throughout history, and it has become even more true as we
expand our potential for making our beautiful planet uninhabitable
through pollution and war. It is the achievements of a civilization
in the arts and humanities that remain when everything else is swept
away by time.
Music is vitamin M. Music is a
chocolate chip in the cookie of life. There is a magic about music.
It enables us to express our noblest thoughts and feelings. It
engages our imaginations. It provides us with unparalleled
opportunities to assert our uniqueness. These are particularly
important functions in a world increasingly dominated by electronic
technology. Music is not merely an adornment of life; it is a basic
manifestation of being human. In insisting that every student have
access to a comprehensive, balanced, and sequential program of music
study in school, we are merely seeking to give students in all
schools the opportunities that are presently given to students in the
best schools. A democratic society can settle for nothing
less.