The Fall Of The Arts: Music Vs. Schools

The Fall of the Arts: Music Programs vs. Schools

As said by the great philosopher Plato, “Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything”. Recently, the mind and imagination has been brought down to earth as schools have started to remove music and art programs. The moral law of music is seen as nothing more than an extracurricular activity, and is thought to be nearly useless. The funding is instead being put into standardized test scores, because many people think that music has no bearing on overall school performance. However, this is not the case. There is evidence in favor of music being more than an art. Because learning an instrument is

Music has been proven to increase academic improvement , not detract from it. As Catterall also says, “music contributes to thinking skills and dispositions that show up in cognitive measures, to detectable gains in certain spatial and mathematical capacities, and to early-age measures of intelligence”. It is not a slight difference according to some obscure test. Musicians’ brains are physically different, able to handle the stress and effort of school better. The benefits of music are consistently

These “extra” arts are just as important as the core classes such as math and science. In fact, instead of simply taking time and focus away from these dominating, though still important classes, they improve performance in all aspects of schooling. It is also thought that test scores are more important than musical education. However, studies have repeatedly proven that it is not one or the other. Learning music has been clearly connected with increased test scores. But not only is music education better for test scores, it provides an additional benefit. Student are able to learn an art and satisfy their creative sides, while at the same time becoming more intelligent. Music and the arts work in conjunction with math and science, assisting each other and pushing each other on to greater things.

Given these many proofs, schools should increase spending on music programs. Several studies have consistently shown that music can increase intelligence. This is why the emphasis in schools needs to change from standardized test scores to music programs. If this happens, then students will be able to express themselves better, and overall performance is schools will go