Sour Notes Cutting Funds For Music And Art Classes Ends Up Costing Sociaty In The Long Run

Is there something about music education that helps students reach their full potential in other academic areas?

German neurologist Gottfried Schlaug thinks so. In a recent study he concluded that the auditory processing area of the left hemisphere of the brain is larger in trained musicians than in non-musicians. Not only that, the musicians also had a thicker nerve fiber tract connecting the two hemispheres. The differences were especially significant among the musicians who started training before age 7.

Schlaug thinks this heftier fiber tract may improve motor control and speed up communication between the hemispheres.

If Schaug’s research is valid it stands to reason that a solid music program in our schools, allowing all students to study music with qualified teachers, will help every student attain success that he or she may not have had if it were not for a music education.

Music is not just a gift, the neurologist believes, but the outcome of long hours of training in early life.

“I don’t have kids,” he says, “but when I do, they’re going to play piano, and start young.”

Writing in USA Today, Education Secretary Richard Riley said, “Research shows that students who play in a school’s band, sing in the chorus, act in plays, draw or paint for an art exhibit or write for the school newspaper often spend more time doing school work and get better grades than students who don’t participate in these activities.

“Also,” Riley said, “there is growing evidence that sustaining students’ interest through the arts helps keep them in school until they graduate.”

Dr. Charles Fowler, author of Can We Rescue the Arts for America’s Children?, calls the arts “the languages of civilization through which we express our fears, our anxieties, our curiosities, our hungers, our discoveries, our hopes. More than merely important, the arts are “a central force in human existence.”

“Each citizen,” says Fowler, “should have sufficient and equivalent opportunities to acquire familiarity with these languages that so assist us in our fumbling, bumbling and all-too-rarely brilliant navigation throught this world. For these reasons, the arts should be granted major status in American schooling.”

A society that deprives its students of these studies accepts mediocrity and endangers a democracy that depends on an informed citizenry to sustain it.

Nor does the benefit of music education end when schooling does. The work ethic that is developed through the study of music benefits students as they enter the work place too.

Employers recognize the value of music study.

Music develops habits of intellectual discipline. Just step into any music class and observe the focus and concentration.

Music develops expressive skills, not just logic.

Nearly 30 times as much money is spent on teaching science in the United States as on the arts. Although we lag behind other countries in test scores, we have garnered nearly four times as many Nobel prizes as all other countries combined.

Music requires hard work. There is no cheating in music. The performance is directly related to the effort put into it.

Music develops problem-solving and the ability to make judgments.

There are many ways to interpret a piece of music, not just one right answer. As a result, music students score 5 to 15 percent higher on ACT and SAT tests than non-musicians. This was verified in a recent study conductd by Steven J. Morrison, a doctoral candidate at Louisiana State University.

The National Education Commission on Time and Learning has recommended practically doubling the amount of time spent on eight core subjects, including the arts.

In spite of all this evidence of the importance of the arts and support for its inclusion, the arts have found it particularly difficult to gain support as subjects that deserve an equal place in the already crowded school day and in the already overcrowded school budget. Sadly, when the budget gets tight the arts are often the first to go.

Music educators continue to be optimistic and dedicated to the cause. More than 1,200 of them, plus 2,000 music students, will gather in Spokane this weekend to learn from numerous national experts and each other in the name of the Northwest Division of the Music Educatiors National Conference.

Their desire and dedication has best been said by Tim Lautzenhiser in his book, The Art of Successful Teaching: “What a challenge, a privilege, a gift we have each day to teach music through our life - and life through our music. Let the concert begin.”

MEMO: Bill Larson of Great Falls, Mont., is president of the Northwest Division of the Music Educators National Conference which will meet Thursday through Sunday in Spokane.

Four sidebars ran with this story as follows: 1. “Most of the goals of educational reform are already in place in music education: performance skills, application of knowledge, critical thinking and problem-solving, cooperative effort, reasoning and evaluating, and most important, success. Music teachers tend to be facilitators or coaches, not providers of information. Students don’t just learn about music, they do music.” -Ron Wildey, music coordinator, Spokane School District 81

2. “I have jazz band before school in the morning. If it weren’t for that it would be hard to wake up and go to school. It’s my favorite class. (Drumming) gives me a lot of recognition in school. People give me compliments. It makes me feel like I’m ahead of the whole scene.” - Chris Gondos, junior, Medical Lake High School, and drummer in the MLHS band.

3. “It’s maddening to me that artists are continually having to justify the place of arts in public education. Music can give otherwise hopeless adolescents - the at-risk age group in our nation - something that is both challenging and rewarding. It’s hard to do it right, but it is so good when you do it right. The study of music is a positive, mind- and body-building, non-polluting, time-consuming, drug- and alcohol-free activity for growing, curious and active kids.” - Ann Fennessy, popular Spokane soprano and Northwood Junior High School choir instructor

4. “Music reaches the very depths of a person’s being. It creates an atmosphere of joy and bonding. It’s truly one of the most beautiful things in my life to watch mothers and children sharing something that gives them both joy. I’ve had mothers say it’s like an oasis in their week when they come here.” - Shirley Grossman, private teacher of music to children 18 months through 7 years.