Disadvantages Of Music In Schools

Music is an art of sound in time that expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through rhythm, tone, melody, harmony and more. Earliest form of music can be traced back to approximately 40,000 years ago with discoveries of flutes made from bird bones in a cave in Germany (BBC, 2012). For generations, music has evolved and has played a crucial role in this humanity. It is strongly believed that listening to music or playing musical instruments has multiple cognitive benefits on children and has a direct correlation with their academic performance.

Following the financial crisis in 2008, many schools have had no choice but to curtail their investment on music education, and this has an extremely negative impact on the kids of today.

Students who study music outperform their non-music peers in assessments of math, and the advantage that music provides increases over time. These findings hold true regardless of socio-economic status and race/ethnicity (Baker, 2011). Additionally, It is believed that music education enhances student motivation. This is explained by their sense of accomplishment by learning musical instruments, which allows them to build confidence to perform better within group activities (Caterall, 2012). On the other hand, schools have the benefit of investing more in other fields such as sports and recreation. This motive allows students to enhance their physical health despite lacking positive benefits from music education. The economically causes which plummets the music education affects the students and their performance in social and academic

According to a study called ‘Musical Identities and Music Education’ written by Börje Stålhammar, it is generally understood that in the lives of young people, music forms a major core of leisure activities (Stålhammar, 2006). Therefore, young people enter classrooms with a wealth of musical knowledge that has accumulated over time and forms what Stålhammar refers to as socio-cultural and emotional Additionally, students felt that music in school took on an artificial feel because of the modifications required to fit music within the context of the school structure. Music making, therefore, does not feel “natural” or “rooted in reality” making it difficult for students to distinguish and draw upon their own personal experiences and cultural background (p. 57). Hence, the impacts of decreasing music education to students are that it prevents children from involvement in their cultural background and also decreases the opportunities to enhance their cultural diversity.

Due to economical purposes, many departments of education worldwide have removed music education from priority learning. This had affected the primary education of children with the absence of socio-psychological benefits. Music not only has cognitive benefits but also shows a direct correlation with students who learn a musical instrument and their