Music Education for Elementary-aged Kids

You hear it on the news at night.  Thousands of teachers to be laid off.  Your son is sitting in the room with you and asks what is going to happen to his music teacher. What do you tell him?

Budget cutbacks are forcing the schools to cut back on programs like music and physical education. In recent years the research on the importance of music education has accelerated, even as the schools are forced to decide that music classes must go.

Here are some of the ways that music education helps children today and into the future.

Math skills are developed through music.  At an early age music helps our children’s brains develop in such a way that later they have a better ability to understand math. With math as the main part of technology, we must be able to focus on math so we can use it to further the positive elements of our economy. If we don’t teach the kids music, we may be keeping them from learning an essential element needed to compete with other countries.

Reading skills require a mind that can concentrate. Music classes teach children how to concentrate. With this skill come enhanced memory and recall skills. The illiteracy rate is going up in the United States. We need to enhance reading skills and music education is a good method to help.

Science skills also benefit from music skills. Music education enhances our children’s reasoning abilities. Through these they can understand how science works, which will make our county competitive down the line.

Social skills seem to be on the decline as children text instead of talk to one another. They play solitary games and spend endless hours alone in front of their computers. Music allows the children to work in teams to create music as a community. When your child is in a music class, he learns how to cooperate with others for a common goal. Music class helps the solitary child associate with others and belong to a group. It helps enhance self-esteem and also may be a step in reducing the incidence of violence in the schools by bringing different groups of kids together.

Music classes have also been associated with an increase in IQ. Music education has helped children with breathing and speech difficulties and those with learning disabilities. Who know what else music helps? By removing music from the schools, we are robbing our children of the necessary proficiency for their and our future. I don’t need to remind you that our children will be running things in a few years. Do you trust your future to someone with an inadequate education? Music education is essential. Be aware if your school is planning to drop the subject.

If you don’t share this opinion, that’s OK, but please try to understand our side in this debate.

What can you do? If you find that your school system in considering dropping music classes, be assertive. Do your best to stop the school from doing this. If you fail? Then try to get the classes reinstated. And in the mean time, if you have children who would have benefited from school music education, consider enrolling them in private classes. One or two lesson a week are enough to get many of the benefits of music classes.