Why Music And Arts Education? An Advocacy

Why Music And Arts Education?

An Advocacy

The other day I was “doom scrolling” and ran across a couple of “memes” about music education:

Of course, I understand that these are just memes that are meant to be funny, and are not to be taken seriously. However, when you are a teacher in a subject that seems to forever be under threat or attack, that gets “defunded” and “devalued” whenever something goes wrong with the budget, the school community or if standardized testing goes down one can get a little defensive about even the most ludicrous things.?

The thing that bothers me about these memes, and particularly scared by those who read them and comment “you know what, that’s actually kind of true”, is that there are those who find this to be both true and reasonable. And therefore, are not aware of the significance of cutting the arts education out of schools.

Now, for sure, there are, and always have been, some who believe that public and private education should only teach “life skills”, how to be a good person, how to survive and how to do only practical “things” - such as checking accounts, taxes or how to cook.?

But, the truth is: That is not the point of an education, that’s an outgrowth of your child’s education.?

By the way: this meme also works in the following way:?

But, rather than griping about the memes, or opinions of internet trolls, it might be better to spend this time answering a simple question:

Why do we study music and art in primary and secondary school??

Now for the plain and simple fact that I am a music educator, my focus is on the importance of Music Education: There are, of course, any number of reasons, most of which are more abstract or even subjective than a straight “answer”. Thus, for this article, I am focused on the objective truths of the benefits of a Music Education.?

These then are the “whys” of music education, and its advocacy, often falling under several different educational umbrellas:

1. Language and Reasoning skills and acquisition
2. Ability to master memorization skills
3. Fine and Gross motor skills development
4. A greater sense of achievement and intellectual curiosity
5. Auditory development and critical listening skills
6. Development of better self confidence, teamwork and discipline

Accepting these 6 umbrellas as a “truth” let’s unpack how music education benefits each student in these ways.

Language and Reasoning Skills: Generally when people talk about Music Education and Language skills, they are speaking about the abstract language of music helping students learn to read faster and retain read material better. This is supported by data, but this is not the only way that music education and training helps with language and reasoning skills. Music also feeds the ability of students to find patterns within rhyming structures, connections of words to meaning, and important context clues in the meaning of lyrical content. In addition, studies have shown that students who study music at an early age develop the left side of their brain at younger ages, this is the area responsible for reasoning and language development.?

Mastery of Memorization: It seems obvious that music will help students learn to better memorize considering that musicians are often called upon to recall pieces of music in concerts. Now, as a person who suffers from differing memorization issues, such as being lyrically deficient, but easily memorizing musical notes, I always dreaded the memorization needed to perform in vocal concerts versus being in the band. However, there is a growing body of research into the “why” and “how” music education helps with memorization.?

The first is in pattern and sequence recognition. Music is often sequential, and musicians are trained to spot the patterns found in sequential motives and motions within musical structures. Once the pattern is spotted and learned, it is locked into the musician's mind. In similar fashion, musicians are able to spot patterns in other areas, whether that pattern is auditory, physical or visual.? In addition, some studies have shown that musicians have greater capacity for memorization due to the inherent need to learn to memorize. Whether this is because of the memorized performance, or the ease of transition (particularly in playing piano), there is a growing body of evidence to suggest that musicians memorize faster and hold that information better (longer) than those who are not trained musicians.

Fine and Gross Motor Skills: This skill is one of those that most music educators will point to when asked “Why should we have music education in schools”. Now, while it is in fact truthful, it is also because it is somewhat unfalsifiable. Of course, if you play the piano, or really any musical instrument, you are developing Fine and Gross motor skills, as anything that moves your fingers and creates hand eye coordination is going to naturally develop your gross and fine motor skills.?

However, developmentally what’s really happening? Is this the same as physical education and their use and development of motor skills??

Since the early 2000’s there have been over 50 different studies on the effect of music and music education on the brain, brain development and motor skill development. However, while this research is ongoing and will always need “further study” - the basic preliminary break down is this:?

1. In order to be successful as a musician, the music learner must patiently apply an incremental approach to skill acquisition. Meaning, you cannot become great overnight, rather one must apply new skills consistently and continuously throughout the process. This helps your fine and gross motor skills in the same way that skill building in sports creates both muscle memory and knowledge of “winning strategy”.
2. As a music educator, for the learner you must take a very complicated concept and break it down to smaller, easily understood processes in order to create the necessary skills in the learner.?

Studies suggest that students who do this with regard to music, create stronger and more durable neural pathways that then help the learner in new arenas and areas of learning.

A Greater Sense of Achievement and Intellectual Curiosity: This is another one of those somewhat unfalsifiable statements because it is common sense to believe that anyone who is successful at anything feels a sense of accomplishment and achievement. If you play a sport, and you score a point, that’s an accomplishment! You’ve achieved success in this arena. So, once again we are in the world of generalities. And thus, when music educators say this to parents, school boards and students, they could just as easily be speaking of sports, science, art or Maker Space - in other words in this regard, there is nothing “special” about music education. And, unless you can pull out the “specialness” of the subject in specific, you are not being an advocate specifically for your subject.?

In reality, this particular benefit to learning music is tied to several other benefits. The reason you have a sense of achievement, and thus create greater intellectual curiosity lies in the following concepts:

1. The learner learns the confidence of knowing their instrument, the notes, how to read the abstract language of music, as well as how each of these interact within each other to create the music they perform! This means patience, memorization and the skill acquisition pays off to allow the student performer to have confidence in their playing and their knowledge.?
2. The increase in Intellectual Curiosity comes from the simple fact that with each successive piece of music, and additional skill acquisition, opens the door to harder and more intricate pieces of music. Now, anecdotes are not data, but I’ve never seen a musician who was “satisfied”. No musician I’ve ever heard has said “I’m done learning new things” or, “I’m skilled enough, I can play Mozart, I don’t need Rachmanioff”. No, rather I have only ever seen musicians who want to tackle the next piece, the next level, or the next composer.?
3. There is some research that points to the endorphins created during a successful performance as a mood boost, and enhancement of joy of performance. And that leads to the musician wishing to further their ability to create performances for further endorphin release.

Auditory development and critical listening skills: This one seems obvious, if you are listening to music, and creating music and playing your instrument(s), critically listening to yourself, then clearly your auditory development and listening skills must be better and more refined than the common learner.?

But why?

There are many studies out there that show that music positively affects a learner’s ability to discern differing tones and to do so at high rates of speed.? According to one such study, music helps learners to discern patterns and sequential moments in pieces of music, while also differentiating the different tones found throughout the piece. This is in spite of the learner also recognizing the main melody from harmonic tones simultaneously. This seems to be true of both melodic and harmonic instrumentations.

There was an excellent study on this that went over the course of 5 years, 2015-2020, spanning over 1000 participants. Their abstract begins:

“According to Brescia,1 the first civilizations used music in all their rituals, such as during birth and death. Music stimulates people's physical, emotional, cognitive and social status. Imaging exams demonstrate activity in parts of the brain, in areas associated with hearing and emotions, when they come into contact with music,2 and when a musical instrument is played, neural connections are created, connecting the two brain hemispheres, which begin to work together.3”

?

Their ultimate conclusion found that:

“....it was found that the musical experience can improve specific skills of the central auditory processing, regardless of age, optimizing children’s linguistic development.”

The cut and dry of these findings are that not only do musicians have improved auditory processing skills, but, also there are implications that music creates new neuroplasticity. Primarily this neuroplasticity? in the auditory processing centers may cause those with auditory processing concerns, disability or delay to better process auditory signals and discern and differentiate sounds.

Development of better self confidence, teamwork and discipline: This is due to the aforementioned situations regarding the patience required to learn the instrument, the sequential learning and skill acquisition and the successes found in performance. Regarding teamwork, the idea of a band, choir or orchestra is that not any one player is more important than any others, even soloists. While there are those who “stand out” there can be no greater person on the stage than the least. Much like a sports team, the performance group is only as strong as its weakest link, and therefore, each performer is there to uplift the next performer next to them. As a theatrical director, I’ve often referenced the idea of cogs within the wheel. The performers on stage are only ever seen due to the technical people behind the scenes, and likewise, without the performer on the stage, there is no reason for the technician to exist. The same is true in the performance groups, without the harmony the melody is incomplete, without the melody the harmony makes no sense.?

Why write 7 pages, and add the research just to advocate for Music Education?

(Or, Who Cares?)

?Currently, in the US there is a systematic attack on the arts, and the music programs specifically. According to some research, some 92% of all public schools have some access to music education, but that is a similar statistic such as: in most schools there is a 15.3:1 ratio (student to teacher).?

It’s a lie. That’s the truth of most statistics - the data can be read to “mean” whatever you want or need it to be meant. Unless, of course, you either admit your biases, or you aggregate the data fully to see where the pitfalls lie. Now, I am an advocate for music and arts education through all K-12 schools in the US, and thus I am biased in my views, however, I will try to aggregate the data fully without bias.?

What the Statistics Show:

When you dig into these statistics you learn: you learn that the “92% access” is leaning heavily on the access portion to the statistic. What is shown is: 92% of the local school systems throughout the country have a music program, at some point throughout the K-12 year curriculum. What it does not show is what that program contains. In general, this program is more likely than not a Elementary General Music, which is geared not to the learning and eventual performance of an instrument, but is really a 30-45 minute class meeting once a week to give a “survey course” on music. Additionally, access does not equal enrollment, nor does it equal participation.

Digging Deeper:

NAMM (The National Association of Music Merchants) conducted a study on Music Education access in the US, and here are their findings:?

• 92% of all students in the US have access to a music program.This means roughly 8% have 0 accessWith 49. 6 Million students this equals roughly 3,968,000 million students with NO access to music and/or arts education at all!Disproportionately these disaffected students are African American, Native and Hispanic students in either Urban or Rural areas.Further study shows: The least access in public education seems to be found in Public Charter schools, and in schools with high rates of free or reduced lunches (ie: lower socioeconomic based districts)
• Access throughout the US by educational levels*:91% Access in Elementary95% Access in Middle schools94% Access in the High School level82% Access in mixed grade schools (ie: Prek-12, 6-12 or otherwise mixed)
• However, it’s in the participation rates that there is a telling issue:81% Participation rate at the Elementary Level47% Participation rate at the Middle School Level18% participation rate at the High School Level41% Participation rate in a mixed school settingThough it is not said, the inference from the above numbers are likely to show that the higher rate of participation is in the Elementary school, and falls off precipitously from there.
• In terms of the schools themselves, what are the schools without access to music programs:6% of all traditional public schools have NO music program associated.There are 90,148 Public Schools in the US: 6% = 5408 schools34% of ALL Public Charter Schools have NO music accessAccording to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, there are 7,048 PCS in the US for 20-21, serving some 3.5 million students. This would leave 2,396 schools with NO music education, or roughly 1,190,000 students music free!

BEYOND THE STUDIES:

In addition to the above mentioned research there is a greater crisis looming on the horizon: Schools are cutting either the programs at large, or their budgetary allotment, and have been for decades. Again the access issue is a concern, but the defunding may be a greater concern. Right now there are too many schools that look at the issue of Music Education as an “option” and one that is prime for the cutting, particularly in light of a few things:?

1. The increased “accountability” efforts put in place during NCLB and now ESSA, and the newer emphasis on standardized testing. When schools hire “testing managers” to help improve the test scores of their students, in lieu of providing educational experiences, we are definitely moving in the wrong directions.
2. The model of curriculum supported in educational reform. When STEM came along, as well as NCLB, there was less resourcing to the arts. This is also true of “newer” design thinking models. I love the idea of “Design Thinking” (Design technology, Maker Space, Coding) - all very important, but not at the cost of other educational programs!?Additionally, when funding for specialized programs (such as coding, technology and math/science) are available federally, statewide and locally, where are administration's efforts and available resources going to go?
3. Less availability of resources, including dedicated and fully qualified teachers, comparable salaries and funding. Right now there is a teacher shortage in the US, and what is being promoted for new teachers: The Arts, or Core subjects that are tied to the funding of the schools themselves.?
4. A wrong approach to music education advocacy. This one is always an issue, we as educators don’t advocate from the research. As a person says: “Facts don’t care about your feelings” . And our advocacy has to be more than feelings, we have to argue and advocate for our subjects and their worth from facts and logic. Figures and research!

Here’s some frightening statistics on public school funding:

1. Overall Public School funding: 612.7 Billion Dollars
2. Funding for Math Education: 693.1 Million
3. Funding for English and Language Arts: 675.8 Million
4. Funding for Music Education: 147.9 Million
5. Funding for High School Sports: 1.02 Billion*

So this, of course,? begs the question: If it is shown that music (and arts education in general) is important to the development and success of students at large, why are we trending in the wrong direction??

And the obvious followup: what do we do about it?

The Research:

"How Music Training can be a Literacy Superpower” - Holly Kirby, June 2022, Edutopia

?“How Music can help Students learn Literacy Skills” - Deborah Farmer Kris, July 2021, KQED

NAFME.org - The Importance of Music Education

Music can Boost Memory and Mood, Harvard Women’s Health, Dr Anne Fabinry, 2015

"Music Brain"?https://musicianbrain.com/schlaugcv.php#publications (2000-2017)

“Does Playing an Instrument help with Motor Skills?”, The Revelle Team, May 15, 2019

?"How Music Helps Auditory Processing Disorder", March 2016, Jay Chalnik -

"Implications of Musical Practice in Auditory Processing": Brazilian Journal of Otorhinolaryngology, March 2021, Braz, Goncalves, Paiva, Haas, & Patatt.

?National Center for Education Statistics, 2021

“Millions of students denied access to Music Education, according to first ever national study”: Wismuller, Christian, September 2022 - JazzED

National Arts Status Report, 2019: https://artseddata.org/national_report_2019/

2020 Census: ?Census.gov

"Exploring the global decline of Music Education": Jose Luis Arostagui, Arts Education Policy Review, v117,N2

"The Decrescendo of Music Education": The Trinity Voice, Henry Van Voorhis, March, 2021

{*This figure is enormously hard to find, but is based on the allocation of $157 per pupil at the rate of 15.7 million total High School students. Also, parents willingly contribute to the funding through Pay for play models, as well as funding and sponsorship throughout many communities. The overall figure for High school sports is upwards of $5-7 billion in the US.}