Music
can be important to a child’s development
BY
TONY MOWRER - SPECIAL TO THE SIERRA STAR
This
is the second in a series of four columns about the current crisis
of music in public schools.
Why
should music be essential for a well-rounded education?
A friend of mine, who is also a middle school principal, answers this
question very simply. He says, The kids need it as much as they need
air! They need music from kindergarten, or earlier, through their
high school years and beyond. Unfortunately, not everyone sees it
this simply. For those of us who need more than a middle school principal’s
opinion, a great deal of research has been done that helps us see
how important music can be in a child’s development.
In recent years, researchers have proven, over and over again, that
persons who are involved in a comprehensive music program have better
developed thinking skills than those who do not. Researchers have
shown that a person who is performing music use both sides of their
brain –– at the same time! This is one of the very few times that
this happens. Researchers have shown that students who are involved
in a good music program actually perform better on standardized tests,
such as those required by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), than
do those who are not involved in music. While many of these studies
involve instrumentalists, the issue at hand is brain function and
not the physical activity involved while playing the instrument. In
fact, some of the most compelling research only involves active listening.
When engaged in rehearsing, performing, or actively listening to music
(regardless of the instrument or voice used), a person’s brain functions
differently than when engaged in nearly any other activity. Note the
following:
• A Rockefeller Foundation study states that music majors have the
highest rate of admittance to medical school –– 66.7 percent. Biochemistry,
a subject very close to medicine, has an acceptance rate of 59.2 percent.
(Source: “Instrumentalist,” July, 1990)
• Second and third-grade students who were taught fractions in an
untraditional manner by teaching them basic music rhythm notation
and learning the relationships between eighth, quarter, half, and
whole notes, scored a full 100 percent higher on a fractions test
than their peers who were taught in the traditional manner. (Source:
“Neurological Research,” March 15, 1999)
• Three year olds who received special singing lessons twice each
week for three years showed greater improvement in coordination, abstract
thinking, and verbal abilities than did a group of three year olds
who attended a regular nursery school program. There was no initial
difference between the two groups in terms of IQ or other age-appropriate
skills. (Source: “Psychology of Music,” Special Issue, 1982 Source:
“Neurological Research” Feb. 28, 1997)
SAT
scores
• The average SAT score for music students in 1989 was higher than
the total average of all students in both 1989 AND 1967.
1967 average SAT scores: Verbal = 446, Math = 492
1989 average SAT scores: Verbal = 427, Math = 476
1989 average SAT scores for music students: Verbal=465, Math=497
(Source: The 1989 College Boards)
• Elm Elementary School, in Milwaukee, was in the bottom 10 percent
in academic performance as of 1979. Since a comprehensive approach
to the arts was added to the curriculum, Elm has ranked first out
of 103 schools in the district for eight out of the last ten years.
In another example, St. Augustine’s School for the Arts in the Bronx,
New York, was widely considered to be failing in 1984. Since introducing
a comprehensive arts curriculum, 98 percent of the student body (of
which 99 percent are culturally diverse) have achieved reading and
math scores at or above grade level — a level equaled by only three
other schools in the entire New York City public school system. (Source:
“The Case for the Arts, in Context.” No. 27, p46-47)
• W.C. Blanton studied the effects of participating in applied vocal
music instruction, passive music instruction (listening), or a combination
of both types of instruction on very young students’ speech and other
personal challenges. He found that students who received the music
instruction had significantly higher speech articulation and "personality
adjustment" scores than those who did not have such instruction.
Blanton concluded that children exposed to music instruction modified
their speech behavior and showed substantial improvement in their
emotional adjustment skills. (Source: http://menc. org/n elworks/genmus/litarticles.
html# 6)
• Sixteen language delayed preschoolers, ages two to five, were included
in a 1988 study by C. Hoskins. These students were given singing instruction
which emphasized antiphonal (echo) singing. At the end of the study
the students were tested using measures of word expression, melodic
imitation, and rhythmic imitation. Hoskins found that as the students’
melodic development increased, so did their spoken expression. In
other words, vocal music instruction may lead to more expressive spoken
language on the part of children. (Source: http://menc. org/n elworks/genmus/litarticles.
html# 6)
Much more evidence from research studies is available. From the above
and other related studies, a person can conclude that, in general,
students who are involved in music tend to get better grades in school
than students who are not involved in music. School districts that
have developed strong, comprehensive music programs that include both
instrumental and choral activities, where most of their students are
involved, have found that school wide results on standardized tests
go up. If music really can help improve thinking skills, help improve
test scores, and help improve student grades, why would anyone consider
cutting, or decreasing, music activities in schools? It seems districts
would find ways to further enhance music activities because of the
ways they can help improve other very important concerns.
Importance
of music
While there is compelling evidence that test scores and thinking skills
are strengthened with involvement in music, these are just a small
part of what music can do for a student. In conversations with Yosemite
Union High School Board members, the importance of music being much
more than a way to improve test scores is frequently stressed. Through
their own experiences, that group understands how music, instrumental
and vocal, is integral to developing a truly whole human and they
support music at the high school for this very reason.
After a choir concert I conducted, a person came to me and remarked
that they had seen students standing on stage, smiling, and singing
who she thought could never have a smile on their faces because of
stresses they were experiencing in their lives.
Through music, a person can learn how to feel. Through music, a person
can find expression of feelings that frequently lie buried.
A woman who cared for her mother stricken with Alzheimer’s stated
that her mother remembered the words to hymns and folk-songs she had
sung as a child as she sank deeper and deeper into the abyss of that
disease. On her final night on earth, she made no eye contact nor
did she respond in any way to the presence of those around her. But,
as her son-in-law played the guitar and sang to her, this woman amazed
everyone present by moving her big toe to the beat of the songs.
Through music, a person can learn to become truly human. Sometimes,
it is through music that a person finds the only place where they
are accepted and one of the few places where they feel fulfillment.
Some students stay in school because of choir and band. One adult
recently told me that music and theater saved his life! A person in
sixth grade isn’t going to have much of an option for going to school.
But, if we take away their involvement in music (whether it be instrumental
or choral), we run a greater risk that the child will want to drop
out of school or will become a significant discipline problem for
the school –– costing the district extra money.
Music has been a part of societal expression since the beginning of
time. Singing and playing music distinguish us from the animals.
They are distinctly human activities which are valuable for their
own sake. It was natural for humans to produce vocal and instrumental
music to express the very essence of their emotions. When we remove
music programs (any part of a music program), we handicap our children.
We teach them, through our lack of support, that music is of little
value in expressing ourselves.
We teach our children to bottle up their emotions or we teach them
to express their emotions by acting out in various other destructive
ways. In either case, we ultimately cost society, and our schools,
much more money than we would if we implement a strong, comprehensive
music program that is active from elementary school through high school.
Tony Mowrer is in his third year at Yosemite High School and holds
a Ph.D in music education from Temple University.
Yosemite
Joint Union High School District News
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