From Harford County Public Schools:
Heralding the commitment to music education, the NAMM Foundation designated 307 school districts across the country as Best Communities for Music Education in a record-breaking year for participation. HCPS has once again been designated as one of Americas Best Communities for Music Education. We are one of four systems in Maryland with this distinction, along with Baltimore, Washington and Wicomico counties.
According to NAMM, the Best Communities designation recognizes collaborative, from-the-ground-up efforts of teachers, administrators, students and parents who continually work to keep comprehensive music education as an integral part of the core curriculum.
This year, nearly 2000 schools and school districts participated in the survey – an increase of 366% from 2012, resulting in a record number of designations. This year’s increase in survey participation is an indication of growing support from both parents and administrators who recognize the vital role that music learning plays in student achievement.
This is very nice but will music, art, high school athletics, and other non-essential programs be able to withstand the budget axe when the school system is underfunded again this year?
I certainly don’t think music, art or physical education are non-essential programs. Music has been shown to increase math skills. Physical education is necessary for overall health, learning teamwork and cooperation and art is an area that provides students with an avenue for self expression. I understand your comment with respect to budgetary issues, but I don’t think the areas you mention should be characterized as non-essential. We want education to produce well rounded individuals, not just little automatons who can spit back information on standardized tests. Using words such as “non-essential” only assists in the process of devaluation of the programs you mention.
The idea that “music has been shown to increase math skills” is a bit of an exaggeration. Read this:
http://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/features/affirmingmozart09202000.html
Do you know what has definitely been shown to increase math skills? Doing math.
You can sure bet Music was not being recognized from the current administration. Honestly speaking it was from the previous Music Supervisor Dr. Bruce Kovacs. Congratulations Dr. Kovacs for allowing Music Teachers the flexibility to be creative and using their skills to expose children with so many experiences as listed in the states Essential Learner Outcomes by the Maryland Fine Arts Education Advisory Panel and the MSDE Assessment Policy Committee.
Did you read the news release you posted? Because it does support the premise that music in particular has some positive effects on learning. Your link was to a news release, not to an actual study. The news release doesn’t indicate the study design, so it’s difficult to make any judgment about the reported conclusions. In any case, my thoughts were about vocal and instrumental classes, not just appreciation (which is also important in my view). I am not a music teacher, but I had many outstanding music teachers in the Harford County school system and I am an amature musician. If you think that you don’t use math in playing music or singing in a choral group you are mistaken. Even if it could be positively proved that children’s test scores are not improved by any or all of the arts those programs still have value.
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