User:HalfwayThrough/Sandbox/Music Education Benefits

Significance
According to the Florida Music Educators Association, “Music and the Fine Arts have been a significant portion of every culture’s educational system for more than 3,000 years. The human brain has been shown to be “hard-wired” for music; there is a biological basis for music being an important part of human experience. Music and the Arts surround daily life in our present day culture. Most present day artists, architects, and musicians acquired their interests during public school Fine Arts classes. Education without the Fine Arts is fundamentally impoverished and subsequently leads to an impoverished society.” It is important to note that "While studies show positive influences in other academic areas, music and the Fine Arts are an academic discipline that are, as the other academics, an independent way of learning and knowing."

It has been argued that studying music enhances academic achievement. The research was brought to the attention of mainstream America with the assertion that listening to Mozart improved spatial reasoning skills. This led to countless attempts to recreate the study, debunk the results, and expand upon them. While listening to Mozart may temporarily enhance a student's spatial-temporal abilities, learning to play an instrument holds much more promise as an avenue to improve student performance and achievement. An education in music yields benefits far beyond creativity and performance. It is shown to enhance academic performance as well. Learning to play an instrument can increase overall brain activity, help with reasoning, make students better learners, better thinkers and better team players. Skills learned through the discipline of music transfer to study habits, communication proficiency, and cognitive dexterity useful in every part of the school curriculum.

A research study produced by the Harris Poll has shown that 9 out of 10 individuals with post graduate degrees participated in music education. The National Report of SAT test takers study indicated students with music performance experience scored higher on the SAT: 57 points higher on verbal and 41 points higher on math.

Research conducted at the University of Wisconsin has indicated that students with piano or keyboard experience performed 34% higher on tests that measure spatial-temporal lobe activity, which is the part of the brain that is used when doing mathematics, science, and engineering. William Earhart, former president of the Music Educators National Conference, “Music enhances knowledge in the areas of mathematics, science, geography, history, foreign language, physical education, and vocational training."

Music may also positively impact learning ability. Specifically, music aids in text recall. Wallace (1994) studied setting text to a melody. One experiment created a three verse song with a non-repetitive melody; each verse had different music. A second experiment created a three verse song with a repetitive melody; each verse had exactly the same music. Another experiment studied text recall without music. The repetitive music produced the highest amount of text recall; therefore, music serves as a mnemonic device. Smith (1985) studied background music with word lists. One experiment involved memorizing a word list with background music; participants recalled the words 48 hours later. Another experiment involved memorizing a word list with no background music; participants also recalled the words 48 hours later. Participants who memorized word lists with background music recalled more words demonstrating music provides contextual cues. Music education is also shown to improve one's success in society. The Texas Commission on Drugs and Alcohol Abuse Report noted that students who participated in band or orchestra reported the lowest lifetime and current use of all substances including alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drugs.

Even the United States Congress, citing many of the statistics above passed a resolution declaring that: “Music education enhances intellectual development and enriches the academic environment for children of all ages; and Music educators greatly contribute to the artistic, intellectual and social development of American children and play a key role in helping children to succeed in school.”

In light of the evidence that supports the positive impact of the arts on academic achievement and testing results, it would be reasonable to believe that United States school administrators would consider a comprehensive music education program and/or expansion of existing programs to be a priority. Schools that have high academic performance in the US are spending 20 to 30% of their budget in the arts with emphasis on music education. This is the exception and not the rule.

Bobbett (1990) suggests that most public school band programs have not changed since their inception at the turn of the last century. “…the educational climate is not conducive to their continuance as historically conceived and the social needs and habits of people require a completely different kind of band program."   Not only have most programs remained unchanged, budgets for music education in most U.S. schools are being cut at a drastic rate due to funding cuts being forced upon the schools. Comprehensive music education programs average $187 per pupil, according to a 2011 study funded by the national Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) Foundation   The Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction with Chesapeake Public Schools in Chesapeake, Virginia, Dr. Patricia Powers states, “It is not unusual to see program cuts in the area of music and arts when economic issues surface.  It is indeed unfortunate to lose support in this area especially since music and the art programs contribute to society in many positive ways.”  What some school boards do not know is that cutting music might cause test scores to fall due to the positive effect on everything from academics to citizenship and even personal hygiene.

A lack of funding is but one of the cards in the deck stacked against music education in public schools. A 2011 study conducted by Kathleen M. Kerstetter for the Journal of Band Research found that increased non-musical graduation requirements, block scheduling, increased number of non-traditional programs such as magnet schools, and the testing emphases created by the No Child Left Behind Act are only some of the concerns facing music educators. Both teachers and students are under increased time restrictions”

Music also has found to help students with developing intelligence. Studies have found that some measure of a child’s intelligence is indeed increased with music instruction. What is new however, is a combination of tightly controlled behavioral studies and groundbreaking neurological research that show how music study can actively contribute to brain development. Researchers at the University of Montreal used various brain imaging techniques to investigate brain activity during musical tasks and found that sight-reading musical scores and playing music both activate regions in all four of the cortex’s lobes; and that parts of the cerebellum are also activated during those tasks.