Shaun Hellige

WRTG 2010
Ron Christiansen
Final Paper
A number of people fight to keep Performing Arts in the education system while others

fight to get rid of it. However, some people would like to fight for music, just not using the most

recent, traditional methods.

Starting in the early 1900s, this was the first that music was seen in four-year universities.

Then the National Association for Music Education, then known as the Music Supervisor’s

National Conference, held its first conference in Iowa in 1907 (Stanford). This conference had

104 attendees, comprised of six lessons within two days, and talked about Philip C. Hayden’s

Ear Training in Rhythm Forms. This annual conference is still going on to this day (Fehr).

Fast forward to 2001, according to the No Child Left Behind Act the arts become a “core

subject”, but not one that requires testing. This means that in high school, you are required to

fulfill an arts credit through music or art, but there is no standardized testing at the end of it. This

allows schools to take funding from the arts programs or cut them altogether when math and/or

English are struggling. On the other hand, NAFME argues that music education is beneficial for

students. They quote a few students

in their article, saying that “drums

help them concentrate,” or that

“with an instrument, you have to be

focused, and that’s the same with

schoolwork.” In that same article,

they reference Nobel Prize winning

scientist, Thomas Südhof, who says

that his bassoon teacher was his (Hellige)

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biggest influence (“Why Music Education Actually Matters”). When you do look at the science,

it does make sense. With music, the brain uses the entire brain whereas other subjects use only

30%-50% of the brain. This figure on the previous page demonstrates only a portion of the brain

that music activates (Hellige).

Everyone has heard of the famous composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, commonly

known as Mozart. Some say that if you listen to his music while studying, you will understand

and retain it better. It is also said this effect lasts for 10-15 minutes after the music stops.

According to J. S. Jenkins, after listening to Mozart, a person’s spatial IQ score can increase by a

mean of 8-9 points, but only for the 10-15 minutes afterwards. However, just because the effect

only lasts for 10-15 minutes after, this doesn’t mean the information taken won’t be retained

(Jenkins). This method can help students retain information easier if they have a hard time

studying and taking tests.

Even though there is science to prove that with music, students can do better in school

many still do not believe music should become a core subject that is tested. First off, when you

look at Athletics versus Performing Arts, the Athletics department gets way more funding. In

New York City, there is $27 million to go around to all the public high school football teams

(Honan). Whereas in fiscal year 2016, the Arts in Education Program received $27 million for

the entire nation (“Federal Funding for Arts Education”). The budget of music in public schools

is often one of the most fought over debates. When supporting a music program, the school must

pay for instruments, playing space, various concerts, and even hire and pay new faculty to teach

(McDaniel). For example, a student tuba can cost as low as $10,000 and as high as $20,000.

Then paying to keep the school running at night to host a concert can be a heft expense when you
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talk about a sound system, air conditioning, high intensity lights, and paying the teacher(s)

overtime.

Next, we come to music detracting from other subjects in school. Those who argue

against music in school say that it takes too much time outside of school. The time for practice,

performances, or trips can be extensive (McDaniel). Yes, they are right in that reason. If you

were to ask any private teacher, they would say that they want their students to practice at least

one hour per day outside of normal school practice. Performances can do the same thing. What if

a student has a biology final but they can’t study the night before because they have a band

performance? Yes, there are some issues, however, they can be worked out.

Finally, we come down to one last point, which rejects the construction of the current

debate. Peter Greene suggests that instead of fighting that music helps raise students’ test scores,

why don’t we take a different approach for it? He admits that he has been in bands, pit

orchestras, and even conducted a few church choirs. However, when it comes to begging the

administrators in schools for more money, he says that we shouldn’t be playing to what they

want to hear. “Music programs are watching administrators race by, frantically chasing test

scores and ignoring music in schools. So it may seem like a natural step to go running after the

testing crowd hollering, ‘Hey, I can help with that, too,’” says Peter. By chasing the

administration saying that you can raise test scores, you make the future of testing dependent on

music, thus buying into testing (Greene). In some ways, he’s right. Music teachers have been

making this argument for over 20 years now and the situation has hardly improved, so why not

change tactics?

In my own opinion, music educators should continue to fight the same way, but provide

the facts that show music helps students increase test scores and well-being. I have to agree with
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Peter Greene that we keep fighting, but his idea to change the approach completely isn’t needed.

It is my belief that music educators are going to administration, telling them that music helps, but

not giving the administration the facts and science as to why it helps. These facts are what will

convince Congress and the Board of Education fully as to why music helps. I recently saw a post

on Facebook that complained about art being taken for granted. It proposed a challenge that I

think everyone should try. This challenge was, go thirty days without art: Music, paintings,

drawings, etc. At the end of the thirty days, see how you feel because humans thrive on art. It has

been there since the beginning of time with mindless banging on drums and cave drawings, to

now where we have insanely complicated, serial, Twelve-tone music.

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Works Cited

“Federal Funding for Arts Education.” PerformingArtsAlliance, Performing Arts Alliance,

www.theperformingartsalliance.org/issue/federal-funding-for-arts-education/.

Fehr, Roz. “NAfME's History, the Evolution of Music Education–and Taylor Swift!” NAfME,

National Association for Music Education, 8 Apr. 2015, nafme.org/nafmes-history-the-

evolution-of-music-education-and-taylor-swift/.

Greene, Peter. “Stop 'Defending' Music Education.” The Huffington Post,

TheHuffingtonPost.com, 18 Aug. 2016, www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-greene/stop-

defending-music-education-_b_7564550.html.

Hellige, Shaun. “Senior Capstone Project.” Google Slides, Google, 19 May 2017,

docs.google.com/document/d/1ICmXU9F_D3kJdwkLqAZSR5uSEuyrjBnPyQGynlRR8z

s/edit.

Honan, Katie. “See How Much Your High School Spends on Boys' and Girls' Sports .” DNAinfo

New York, DNAinfo New York, 17 Oct. 2016, www.dnainfo.com/new-

york/20161017/elmhurst/psal-public-school-athletic-league-spending-sports-new-york-

city/.

Jenkins, J S. “The Mozart Effect.” Advances in Pediatrics., U.S. National Library of Medicine,

Apr. 2001, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1281386/.

McDaniel, John. “Negatives of Music in School.” Synonym, 4 Apr. 2017,

classroom.synonym.com/negatives-music-school-8136295.html.
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Stanford, Grace Ann. “History of Music Education in the United States.” EduNova, www.edu-

nova.com/history-of-music-education-in-the-us.html.

“Why Music Education Actually Matters.” NAfME, National Association for Music Education,

18 Oct. 2017, nafme.org/why-music-education-actually-matters/.

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The biggest revision on this piece that I did was to my own opinion. In my earlier drafts, it

seemed to readers that I was portraying that I agreed completely with Peter Greene’s argument,

but in reality, I only agree to continuing to fight for music education. So I had to reword that to

say that I think we keep arguing the same way that we have been.