As a Music Education major and a long-time violinist, music has always been a priority of mine. I didn't play sports in high school, I wasn't on the student council, and I didn't join any clubs  --  because I didn't have the time. Music was too important to me, and I always needed it to be #1 on my list of priorities, and this philosophy still holds true today.

Why is music so important to me? In short: because it's made me a better person. Learning music over the years has shaped me into a dedicated and motivated student, a patient friend, a thick-skinned and strong-willed individual, and has made me lifelong friends along the way. None of this would be possible without the music educators in my life, which is why I am such a strong advocate.

While attempting to recover from the recent recession, many arts programs have been cut from public schools, which shows that there are many administrators who don't think the arts are valuable enough to keep. I did not go to a private school or a special school for musicians. I attended normal public schools in a normal suburban town, and I believe that everyone, regardless of what type of school they attend or where, should have the opportunity to learn an art form. 

The first source I found regarding my topic came from the Journal of Research in Music Education, which I found through the JSTOR database. The article discusses the involuntary physical effects that music can have on our bodies. (Ex. Tapping feet, nodding heads, dancing, swaying, clapping, etc.) It also discussed some of the invisible effects, like on heart rate. 

This article was almost purely informational. There wasn't very much talk of values or opinions on the topic of music education in schools, and I intend to use it's information as evidence to support my claims regarding my own values and opinions on music education. 

The author of this article is Elliott Dainow. He is credible on this topic because most of the information in the article is taken from scholarly studies and experiments. Also, I believe that this is a very reliable source because it was unbiased and I found it through the Thomas Cooper Library site on the JSTOR database.  

My second source discusses the pros and cons of arts education in schools. It's useful because it discusses all of the arts: music, dance, visual arts, and theater. The article touches on how more privileged towns with more resources will undoubtedly have better music programs, and the poorer towns might not have a program at all.

This is clearly an argumentative essay. While it touches briefly on the other side of the argument, it mostly focuses on why the arts are needed in schools. This means that the article is biased, and I can use the author's opinions and the statistics in the article to support my argument.

The author of this article is Tim Walker. While he may not know much about music education, he is credible to write this article because he is quoting people who are qualified to be talking about it. The author is just a journalist, but his article is interesting and accurate.

Lastly, my third source comes from the Hechinger Report. This article briefly describes a school in a crime and poverty-ridden New York neighborhood that is designed like an art gallery to promote the arts. It also touches on the connection between the arts and common core classes.

This article seems slightly biased, but with good reason. I think that we need more articles like this one circulating the web. I learned a lot of information through reading this article, like about the specific New York City charter school system that is working hard to help needy/underprivileged kids pursue arts. 

This author works for a nonprofit, independent news organization, which leads me to think that it is trustworthy, because the URL ends in ".org." She has been writing about education since 2000. She uses flawless punctuation and grammar, and her writing is accurate and easy to follow.

In conclusion, I believe that my research question is arguable because of the vast number of administrators who believe that the arts are invaluable. Many educators who do not work in the music field believe that the music program should be the first to be cut because it "doesn't benefit children like math and science do," and takes time away from "real" classes. In writing this paper, I would like to find sources that oppose my view as to include a strong counterargument, but I think that my initial argument/question is strong. 
