|
|
||
|
Connecting our communities through music
|
||
|
How Students Benefit From Music Lessons “When I hear people asking how do we fix the education system, I tell them we need to do the opposite of what is happening, cutting budgets by cutting music programs…. Nothing could be stupider than removing the ability for the left and right brains to function. Ask a CEO what they are looking for in an employee and they say they need people who understand teamwork, people who are disciplined, people who understand the big picture. You know what they need? They need musicians.”
–
Former Arkansas Governor Mike
Huckabee, MENC Centennial Congress, Orlando, Florida, June 2007
Teamwork. Studying music in band, in the classroom or ensemble settings, requires students to work together. Not unlike sports, music challenges the individual and provides many new learning opportunities.
Studies find a link between the practice of music and advanced test scores and grade point averages. Learning music equals academic success.
Left and right brain activity is increased with learning music, which has proven to increase retention, focus and memory.
Self discipline and focus are two by-products of music study. These essential skills, particularly if developed early, foster success in all areas of life. Research and Quotes Data show that high earnings are not just
associated with people who have high technical skills. In fact, mastery of
the arts and humanities is just as closely correlated with high earnings,
and, according to our analysis, that will continue to be true. History,
music, drawing, and painting, and economics will give our students an edge
just as surely as math and science will. – Tough
Choices or Tough Times: The report of the new commission on the skills of
the American workforce, 2007, page 29.
When people put on
a play or a dance piece together, they learn to cooperate – and find they
must go beyond tradition and authority if they are going to express
themselves well. The sort of community created by the arts is
non-hierarchical – a model of the responsiveness and interactivity that a
good democracy will also foster in its political processes. And not the
least, the arts can be a great source of joy. Participation in plays, songs
and dances fills children with happiness that can carry over into the rest
of their education.
Martha
Nussbaum, Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics,
University of Chicago; Newsweek International, August 21 – 18, 2006;
“Teaching Humanity”. -Albert Einstein
|
||
