Tamia Jones

Samuel Hackworth

ENGL 102/119

2 May 2016

Be a Show-Off

Faint rattles are heard from the football stands; the marching band is approaching to the tempo of the snare drum roll. The band is relatively small for being from a large school and their competitors watching in the stands snicker about their size. They take the field for their competition run. With every member having the posture of a statue and eyes filled with pride in their organization, their drum majors' salute, the down beat was the loudest of the day. The stands went silent and everyone watched in awe. They have come to play! 

Music education is the subject of teaching and learning various aspects of music including vocal, instrumental, and composition. Customarily, people begin learning music at a young age, either as children or adolescents. There are many positive effects of music on children, which research has shown. In public schools, they may begin to learn music as a general subject or activity in elementary school and later choose whether they will pursue learning even further in middle school and beyond. In public schools, there is an issue with budget for music education programs because many times, the money of these programs is shifted to the core subjects. This has been a result of the poor economy which forces schools to provide students a high-quality education with a low-quality budget as the cost of education rises (Major). There has also been a change in the policy of education stemming from the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001; the children ultimately have no say in what their school district decides to do with this money. This leads to the question: Despite the known positive effects of music education, why do these programs constantly face budget cuts? Therefore, although there may be legitimate reasoning for slashing the budget of a music program, it should still be kept in public schools. Music has been proven to benefit children later in life, benefit their school life in a society where sports dominate and are brought to the forefront with larger budgets, and it remains a relevant issue especially among lawmakers. The time dragged away from deserving students should not force them to spend more time in a classroom setting in order to boost their school's standardized testing scores. Children, like adults, need time to unwind on a daily basis and music allows them to do that. It allows them to express their feelings and not have to think about the math quiz they have in an hour. Everyone needs time to walk away from what they are doing and have a break, during school days music should be that break for children. 

Music educators today are constantly having to struggle with their program facing a shrinking budget. There are legitimate reasons for public school districts to cut the budget of a music education program. Marci Major's case study examines how the administrators of the Lekbery School District of Detroit, Michigan decide the fate of their music programs. There are many factors that these school officials had to consider while deciding what to do. They considered their personal values and philosophical ideas about music education in addition to the values and demands that would benefit the community (Major). The quality of teaching that their school district could afford and provide to their students played an equal role amongst many factors including, the artistic and practical purposes of allowing music education to remain in the curriculum (Major). Finally, the officials considered the economic value that music adds and how the music program contributed to the overall representation of the school district (Major).  There are many schools that keep their programs alive despite the threat of limited funding. It is an extraordinary thing as a study showed that there is no significant correlation between limited funding and the decline or eradication of these programs (Major). The only answer for this comes from a very difficult process where school officials decide how to spend the money readily available to them (Major). From this case study, it is obvious that this decision was not taken lightly the administrators and the school board members thoroughly considered the repercussions as well. 

Music has been known to have many intangible benefits amongst those who are its students beyond their musical skills. Most of these benefits have been known to effect test scores, personality and many more which are known as the transfer effect. But, Paivi-Sisko and Tuomas Erola's study examined the inward benefits of music specifically amongst students with extended music education experience; the quality of school life or satisfaction in the student's school environment is measured (Erola). Paivi-Sisko Erola is a PhD student in musicology while Tuomas Erola is a professor of musicology. Some of the skills developed from music education that transfer to other areas show improvement in IQ testing, literacy skills, selective attention and sensitivity to emotions within speech context compared to their peers (Erola). IQ testing is an acronym for "intellectual quotient" tests (Cherney). They are used to help diagnose intellectual disabilities or intellectual potential (Cherney). Surprising to many is that these transfer studies did not successfully show any relationship between music education and social benefits (Erola). The results of the examination were that students with extended music education were more satisfied with their school life compared to their pupils with normal curriculum. Students being more satisfied with their school has a positive snowball effect. Student satisfaction has a relationship with the teachers in schools. Their work satisfaction and their rate of attendance is related to their students. If teacher absence and schools' financial losses are related to the satisfaction of their students, music is clearly worth keeping around. Music is a powerful tool which allows children to achieve their ultimate potential. These children have been studied and known to have developed strong cognitive and social abilities because of their unique ability to express themselves (Royal Conservatory). The brains of people musically trained have shown stronger neural connections, more grey matter, better information processing, higher IQ, better memory, attention and motor coordination because music requires participation from many regions of the brain (Royal Conservatory). These students were also four times more likely to receive recognition for their academic success and were three times more likely to have won an award for school attendance (Royal Conservatory). The academic success is very impressive and notable. But, the most important findings of these studies are that these children are becoming great people. They have more empathetic capabilities and know how to cooperate and collaborate at a young age which are valuable skills personally and professionally (Royal Conservatory). 

At football games, the marching band takes center stage at halftime to show off their skills and what does the majority of the crowd do? Pay them no attention whatsoever; the people talk, leave to order something to eat from the concession stand and act like there are not kids in those uniforms who love to showcase their talents just like the players on the football team. There has been an idea created that it is not cool for a growing young adult to be a musician and this is obvious amongst school districts because the sports programs are given larger budgets than the music programs which has members who work just as hard, if not harder than the sports team. Bonnet illustrates her opinion about the battle of the budgets within a school district in Texas. Neither activity requires participation by any student. Football is given a larger budget to be allocated to what is needed by the players, the term needed is used very loosely; many sports teams are able to buy new jerseys, being the quickest student organization to recycle through to new uniforms (Bonnet). For many of today's music education programs, there are what some call "band fees" which help pay for props, other music equipment, gas for bus trips and many other things. However, these fees do not cover the price of everything, music students have to participate in fundraisers as well. This foundational budget gap sets the two programs on opposite playing fields making people want to tear down the other program. Some may say that the athletics program is rewarded too much. At the school illustrated by Bonnet, the football stadium was rebuilt at an insane cost which could have reassured many of the student programs about their monetary status. This battle could be the result of the expensiveness of some music materials but then it would be logical to provide that organization with the larger budget; students should not have to inconvenience others with constant fundraisers because of their school's financial woes. Issues like these lead to the roles of the programs in the school to be assessed. John Gerdy suggests that funding should be allocated toward programs that exceed educational potential and expectations (Gerdy). As an advocate for music and the founder of Music for Everyone, Gerdy is clearly stating that music programs offer more educational value compared to sports programs. Sports provide benefits for children as well: physical fitness, improving collaborative skills and increase the chance of getting injured, seriously and un-seriously. Music is not a competition of brawn, but it is a competition of the brain; the musician's brain. The goal is to learn new skills and perfect them each and every time they sing, play an instrument or compose a piece of music. The competition is within, the power of the mind to take time to work hard for the skills already present to become even better and one-up oneself. Schools want their students to succeed greatly but, they focus on the academics. Music is showing that students are improving themselves outside of the academic realm in a creative way, which is in fact success and it helps students apply it to their academics. In all, this explains why musically educated children are some of the brightest students. 

The constant battles dealt with by student musicians eventually lead to government involvement. In July 2015, the United States Senate passed a bipartisan reauthorization proposal, the Every Child Achieves Act. This act helps ensure that all students despite their socioeconomic status are allowed to experience the many positive benefits that music has to offer (Hurlburt). This decision by the Senate, acknowledged the issue with music and art program's recognition in the educational curriculum narrowing brought about by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 shifted educational policies in order to prioritize standardized testing of students (Major). It requires schools to measure and prove that their students have made "adequate yearly progress" (Major). This resulted in school districts leaving music in the wind in order to prepare students for a round of standardized testing each year to make sure the scores improved from the previous school year, which resulted in a monetary shift in addition to a time shift where children would have more instructional time (Major). This creates an unprecedented disconnect amongst the two issues. If schools want higher test scores and music education is known to assist in this area, why not keep it around? It also serves as time for students to relax from the instructional time throughout the day. Adam Savage, a star of the show Mythbusters on the Discovery Channel gave his opinion on this issue. He stated that shop class and band should be brought back because it actually teaches children skills, instead of them learning how to take tests (Wynne). He also referred to the STEM program, which is an acronym for science, technology, engineering and math; Savage argues that it should be STEAM because art is needed to complete an education (Wynne). Laura Spence, a STEM coordinator of elementary and middle schools partly agreed with Savage. She states that test are important for assessing areas of need in the student's curriculum but, hands-on activities make learning relevant and retainable (Wynne). For many schools, art/music can be part of a student's daily schedule just like the core classes that are components of STEM. It just incorporates time in the student's schedule where they can wind down and not have to spend their entire school day in a desk. 

Diane Ravitch was originally a supporter of the No Child Left Behind Act, but her opinion changed in 2006 when she attended a conference examining if the major remedies of the act, assessing if they were effective (Ravitch). The most disappointing proponent of the act, in her opinion, was that by the year 2014 all students despite their mental and language capabilities had to be proficient in reading and mathematics or their school would suffer the consequences (Ravitch). But, the act led to an unintended consequence time shrinkage for teaching anything besides reading and math, making test scores the obsession of public schools resulting in a creativity crisis. If the needs are met in the classroom for creative students, they tend to thrive and are overachievers but, the opposite can be said for creative students who do not have their needs met (Zagursky). 

Peter Green clearly articulates many benefits of music education and he understands the pressure that music programs are under. He argues that music is universal, it is everywhere and is constantly present in everyday life (Green). He offers the question: would you be able to live in a world without music? If not, why would you want to have a school without music? Music allows people to understand and express themselves while making music elevates this even more. He is constantly posing questions in this article, asking: why would we not want to give students the opportunity to learn how to express themselves by making music? Music is a powerful tool that connects people in astounding ways, everyone is a winner when they play music, there is no real competition like a sports game; music is a community that one can always give back to serving as a source of pride (Green). But, defending music because of its own greatness has not been as effective. It gives the decision makers an ultimatum in some ways if keeping music around is beneficial towards things like test scores for a school because they have to achieve a certain improvement each year. Instead of a tactical error it can be thought of as a strategic movement because of how unfair these programs are treated. Music should be defended "tactically" because it shows how beneficial it is to other aspects of a student's school life and life in general, learning from music and learning to apply this knowledge is a unique talent that the brain enjoys and should be cherished. 

When music education programs are cut, it becomes a pastime for students that is not as enjoyable anymore because time has to be spent asking other people graciously for their money. Many studies show that music is very constructive for children and assists in making them some of the smartest children in school and the best-rounded individuals later in life. Sometimes, the defunding issue is easily combated by success of the program, high enrollment rate and strong community support. In my town of North Augusta, South Carolina we had a large enrollment rate of students in the marching band, the Jacket Regiment. Despite this, we did have to do many fundraisers to help pay for props, bus trips, instrument repair and many other things along with a $250 band fee at the beginning of the season for 200 members. Music has provided me with a place to call home, my experience in my high school music program influenced me the most. My instructor, Chuck Deen gave me many leadership roles that I did not think would every come my way. From my freshmen year of high school to the present day, I always think of and apply the "Three D's": Desire, Discipline and Dedication. That is what is required by those of us who want to see music stay around in today's public schools. Though I may not be able to change educational policies, I can and will give back to my band programs by volunteering my services throughout the summer. Therefore, musicians should seek attention and show off our skills at any given moment because every opportunity should be seized to show how amazing music really is. 

Works Cited

Bonnet, Siandhara. "Fine Arts vs Sports: The Battle of the Budgets." lhsroar. Flex Word Press, 13 February 2013. Web. 4 February 2016. 

Cherney, Kristeen. "IQ Testing." Healthline. Healthline Media, 29 January 2016. Web. 9 April 2016. 

Doherty, Kara. "Music Education: Why is it Important?" Online Video Clip. YouTube. YouTube, 25 March 2014. Web. 26 April 2016.

Erola, Paivi-Sisko and Tuomas Erola. "Extended Music Education Enhances the Quality of School Life." Music Education Research 16.1 (2014): 88-104. Web. 17 March 2016.

Gerdy, John. "Let's Talk About Sports' Role In Our High Schools." LNP (Lancaster, PA) 23 August 2015: Print. 

Green, Peter. "Stop 'Defending' Music Education." Huffposteducation. Huffington Post, 11 June 2015. Web. 4 February 2016.

Hurlburt, Catherina. "Senate Passes Every Child Achieves Act, with Music and Arts as Core Subjects, Intact." nafme. National Association for Music Education, 16 July 2015. Web. 27 January 2016. 

Major, Marci L. "How They Decide: A Case Study Examining the Decision-Making Process For Keeping or Cutting Music In A K-12 Public School District." Journal of Research in Music Education. 61.1 (2013): 5-25. Web. 24 February 2016.

Ravitch, Diane. "The Death and Life of the Great American School System." Nea. National Education Association. 2010. Web. 29 March 2016.

Royal Conservatory. "The Benefits of Music Education." Rcmusic.ca. The Royal Conservatory. April 2014. Web. 29 March 2016.

Wynne, Sharon Kennedy. "'Mythbusters' star: Bring back band, shop class if you want better test scores." tampabay. Tampa Bay Times, 15 April 2015. Web. 27 January 2016.

Zagursky, Erin. "Smart? Yes. Creative? Not so much." Ideation. William & Mary. 3 February 2011. Web. 29 March 2016.
