Page 1 of 23, showing 20 records out of 450 total, starting on record 1, ending on 20

Music Is Vital to Our Education System

Added: Nov 18, 2009 - View

“Music Education Promotes: Creativity, Problem Solving, Cooperative Learning, Positive Self Esteem, Aesthetic Awareness, Integration Opportunities ... Our education system can only be made BETTER by continuing/starting to value music as vital component of a child's educational experience.”- Anonymous, Wisconsin

Children Need to Learn Our Musical Heritage

Added: Nov 18, 2009 - View

“I strongly support music education in the schools. The music available to many children on the radio and TV is certainly not representative of our musical heritage. Through music in the schools, children can learn the joy of singing, playing musical instruments, and appreciating fine music.” - Ellen B., North Carolina

Music Fills the Heart

Added: Nov 18, 2009 - View

“Yams fill the belly and trade fills the pockets, but music fills the heart.”

Music Training Linked to Better Understanding of Speech

Added: Nov 16, 2009 - View

“A new study suggests that musical skills can also help people understand spoken words buried in a noisy cacophony. This ability may help explain why music training seems to help some people with other forms of learning and could eventually lead to new therapies for children with autism and older people with hearing difficulty…[Nina] Kraus and colleagues Alexandra Parbery-Clark, Carrie Lam and Erika Skoe [of Northwestern University] evaluated participants as they listened to and then repeated back sentences presented in varying amounts of background noise. Those who had musical training, defined as ten or more years of musical study, were much better able to repeat the sentences than those without it. Kraus says the finding supports the argument that musical training may harness areas of the brain that improve executive functioning.”

Music Builds Teamwork Skills

Added: Nov 16, 2009 - View

According to a 2003 Gallup nationwide survey, 96 percent of Americans believe participation in a school band is a good way for children to develop teamwork skills.

Music Teaches Discipline

Added: Nov 16, 2009 - View

According to a 2003 Gallup nationwide survey, 88 percent of Americans believe participation in music helps teach children discipline. 71 percent believe that teenagers who play an instrument are less likely to have disciplinary problems.

Music Helps Students Perform Better in All Subjects

Added: Nov 16, 2009 - View

According to a 2003 Gallup nationwide survey, 78 percent of Americans feel learning a musical instrument helps students perform better in other subjects.

Americans Overwhelmingly Want Music Education in Schools

Added: Nov 16, 2009 - View

“According to a new nationwide survey conducted by the Gallup organization, 95 percent of Americans believe that music is a key component in a child’s well-rounded education. In fact, more than three quarters of those surveyed feel schools should mandate music education…In a question asked for the first time this year, 80 percent of respondents agreed that making music makes participants smarter. This finding comes on the heels of a decade of scientific research linking active participation in music with improved mental capacity in young children, students and the elderly.”

NAESP on arts programs -- historical note

Added: Nov 13, 2009 - View

NAESP is concerned that arts programs are often inadequately funded in schools today and frequently the area of the curriculum most vulnerable to budget cuts. The association believes that the arts are a funcitonal part of the broad curriculum demands of our society; and, therefore, reaffirms the belief that the arts should be an integral part of the basic curriculum. The association urges educators and schools to integrate the arts more fully into the educational program as a valuable means of revitalizing the content of all subject matter areas and also as a means of revitalizing the teaching process itself.

Music Is Intellectual and Emotional

Added: Nov 12, 2009 - View

“Music allows us to experience mentally and physically the aspects of life that are beyond the range of procedure or logic based cognitive skills. Music allows us to bridge the gap from intellectual to emotional. It doesn't require expensive instruments - the voice is one of the most versatile instruments. It does require the time and dedication of our leaders and schools.”- Floyd S., Virginia

Learning Music Expands Your Thinking

Added: Nov 12, 2009 - View

“Music is an essential part of any well-rounded education. To deny our children quality music instruction is unwise. Studies have shown the impact of music education on a student. However, music should not be taught only as a utilitarian tool but for itself: music is a part of our heritage and our souls--our natural inclination is always to seek and produce that which is beautiful. Music and the arts seek and produce the beautiful, expanding a person's thinking.”- Casey P., South Carolina

Music Helps Dyslexic Children Build Language Skills

Added: Nov 10, 2009 - View

“Harvard University researcher Gottfried Schlaug…and his colleagues found a correlation between early-childhood training in music and enhanced motor and auditory skills as well as improvements in verbal ability and nonverbal reasoning…The correlation between music training and language development is even more striking for dyslexic children.'[The findings] suggest that a music intervention that strengthens the basic auditory music perception skills of children with dyslexia may also remediate some of their language deficits.' Schlaug said.”

Music Improves Brain Function

Added: Nov 10, 2009 - View

“Laurel Trainor, director of the Institute for Music and the Mind at McMaster University in West Hamilton, Ontario, and colleagues compared preschool children who had taken music lessons with those who did not. Those with some training showed larger brain responses on a number of sound recognition tests given to the children. Her research indicated that musical training appears to modify the brain's auditory cortex…Even a year or two of music training leads to enhanced levels of memory and attention when measured by the same type of tests that monitor electrical and magnetic impulses in the brain.”

Music Education Has Real World Applications

Added: Nov 9, 2009 - View

“My former students, not only the ones who have stayed with the music programs throughout their middle school and high school years, come back to me and tell me how much they appreciate how their musical experience has helped them in the ‘real world.’ We offer the invaluable experiences they will get nowhere else in their student lives. We educate not only for today, but also, for the future. Our music programs are often the first experience our students have in which they must deal with an adult on at a level of emotional and intellectual maturity which is not present in the other school work.”- Richard S., Texas

Music Reaches Hard-to-Reach Children

Added: Nov 9, 2009 - View

“As a music teacher I have reached children considered ‘Hard Core Delinquents’ by other teachers and have turned their lives around. This is great for them and very gratifying for me.”- Daniel M., Wisconsin

Music May Improve Surgeons’ Performance

Added: Nov 9, 2009 - View

“Playing music during surgery may help some surgeons relieve stress and improve their performance, a study conducted by researchers at UB suggests.To assess the influence of music on surgeons’ cardiovascular reactivity – blood pressure, pulse rate and skin conductance – and performance, the researchers enlisted 50 male volunteers, all music enthusiasts who listen to music during surgery. In a laboratory setting, the 50 surgeons were asked to perform mental arithmetic tasks, a standard method for measuring  psychophysiological stress, to mimic the stress a surgeon might experience in the operating room…Results showed that the surgeons performed substantially better when listening to their own selection than when listening to the control music or when no music was playing…Using their own music, the surgeons showed only small changes in blood pressure over their baseline, even when under stress.”This study was conducted by Karen Allen and Jim Blascovich of UBUs Center for the Study of Biobehavioral and Social Aspects of Health.

Music Study Hones Technical, Math Skills

Added: Nov 9, 2009 - View

“Music is not only important for its intangible benefits, but for its contribution to skills in math and science. I am both a musician and a very successful technical person, and have been a math teacher. Playing instruments and singing have honed my skills at quick thinking and analysis. Studies say it's true, but experience proves it.”- Susann R., Oregon

Music Makes Good Citizens

Added: Nov 9, 2009 - View

“I am a fifty-seven-year-old man. I started playing clarinet in the school band as a fifth grader in 1961. Being in band allowed me to perform in Japan in the All American Youth Honor Band in 1970. I have played in community bands and orchestras all my adult life. Being involved in band has certainly contributed into making me a much better and productive member in society. Music is basic and necessary in my life. I will forever be grateful.”- Michael R., Washington

Music Teaches Life Lessons

Added: Nov 9, 2009 - View

“I have been a music educator for 22 years. Music has enriched my life and the lives of thousands of my students over those years. Music teaches many of the important life lessons necessary to mature into adulthood.”- Kevin J., Kansas

Arts Students Are the Best Achievers

Added: Nov 9, 2009 - View

“We have 4 generations involved in our music stores, open since 1947. We are a staunch supporter of the instrumental and vocal music programs throughout our service area. I have also taught instrumental music in the public schools for the past 50 plus years. It is not a well worn statement to say that students involved in the arts are amongst the best achievers in public and private education. It is a fact.”- Keith W., California