Music Education – Buddy, can you spare a dime? (II)

This effect is not necessarily a conscious phenomenon, either. In a study of first and second graders in a Rhode Island school district, they performed better in reading and math when their curriculum included just an hour of music and an hour of art a week. There was a 22 percent difference in test scores between the students who enjoyed this exposure to music and art, and those who did not receive it.

According to a profile of SAT Program test takers:

Students with coursework/experience in music performance and music appreciation scored higher on the SAT: Students in music performance scored 57 points higher on the verbal and 41 points higher on the math, and students in music appreciation scored 63 points higher on verbal and 44 points higher on the math than did students with no arts participation.

Schools that produced the highest academic achievement in the United States spent 20 – 30 percent of the day on arts, with a special emphasis on music. A parochial elementary school in the Bronx that was about to lose its accreditation implemented an intensive music program into its day. Within eight years, 90 percent of students were reading at or above grade level.

And finally, the Texas Commission on Drug and Alcohol Abuse noted that “secondary students who participated in band or orchestra reported the lowest lifetime and current use of all substances (alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drugs).”

So we should all agree that music education is important, perhaps even vital – and most of us do. In a 2004 Gallup poll, 95 percent of the people questioned felt that music was essential to education. Of those who answered the nationwide survey, 80 percent responded that music education made a child smarter. So the question becomes, do we want a nation of dumb kids?

School systems find themselves between a curricular rock and budgetary hard place when it comes to music. Said one California school superintendent, after effectively eliminating music from his system’s program of study, “The other choices were worse: cutting reading teachers, closing schools, or (cutting back on) class size reduction.”

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that schools in California had a 50 percent decline in the number of music education programs because of financial constraints. In Wisconsin, teachers claimed the No Child Left Behind law foisted on the nation is threatening music and art programs throughout the state: “School districts statewide are slashing the music and art programs in order to reduce the budget. They feel pressured to cut these programs first, because unlike math, writing, and reading, music and art are not government tested.”

One of those Wisconsin schools might actually have to return funds from VH-1’s Save the Music program because it doesn’t have a full-time music teacher to supervise the piano lab set up with the cable network’s $25,000 grant. It could buy the instruments, but once it had them, it couldn’t afford to hire anyone to use them.