MUE 6080 Module 3: Reasons to Advocate Music Education

Non-musical benefits of a proper music education:
1. Increased student academic performance in other content areas. Music For All, a nonprofit organization designed to promote music advocacy, states that “The College Entrance Examination Board found that students involved in public school music programs scored 107 points higher on the SAT's than students with no participation.”  Link here. 

2. Increased self-worth and confidence. Some studies claim that participation in the arts will increase students’ self-worth. Link to PBS article on this topic here. 

As someone who grew up in a home environment of “existing” rather than “living”, I agree that participation in school art programs increase self-worth. As a young band student I did not find the aesthetic value of music very often, but I quickly correlated musical successes with a much needed increase of self-esteem.  

3. Increased problem solving and reasoning skills. On NAFME’s “20 Important Benefits of Music in Our Schools” list, number one details the correlation between music and the development of the areas of the brain related to reasoning. Link here.

4. Increased language development. PBS.org has a long list of the benefits of a music education, including music’s ability to help young learners decode sounds and words. Link here. 

Why we should not base the value of music education on non-musical benefits:

1. In regards to number one above, while reading the many articles and studies that support music education’s relationship with increased academic success it is important to consider the opposite order and that high achieving students might be more likely to choose to participate in school music programs.  

2. Additionally, justifying music education’s existence on the outcomes of other content areas is just that; existing. The true value of music is in its ability to allow humans to “live” rather than “exist” and so  it is not beneficial to promote music education based on the effect it has on students’ ability to understand math and science. This justification is exactly why I lose many high school band students to honors biology every year.

3. While school music programs may offer students opportunities to grow as leaders or increase life skills such as responsibility and teamwork, many other school programs can do that too. Sports, academic clubs, and student organizations (student council) can be argued to offer the same array of skills and they are not incorporated into the school day as a class.   

4. Lastly, justify music education for any other reason other than studying music for the sake of knowing and experiencing music is harmful to the cause. If we defended music education for its beauty and expressiveness than perhaps music educators could focus their efforts more in that direction rather than finding ways to use music to support common core (or whatever new educational fade is being used).

Ultimately I feel it is important that we get away from linking music education to other content areas within schools. Bands, orchestras, and choirs are nothing like other content areas and I think that is a good thing. What music education can offer cannot be replicated in other classroom and I think we should celebrate that. While taking a break from this assignment I was scrolling social media and came across this “suggested” advertisement. 

Clearly, facebook does not know me very well. If they did they would have “suggested” something more like this: