Music hath charms that educate.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Music lessons for disadvantaged kids.

 

interesting studies in the U.S.

 

Many schools have dropped music education due to expense.  Are they shortchanging the students by more than a little?

[flatron 83]

Dropping any lesson for financial reasons is dumb. I never really liked musical education because I have the tact sense of a stone and my grades reflected that, but it is important that pupils get to know the great composers and also how contemporary music developed. (plus, singing is awfully good for the soul and even the body)

[Duke87 1,070]

Musical education certainly helps with the development of certain useful skills. The problem of course is that in and of itself it is not directly useful for the vast majority of people, and to many parents I am sure it is seen as frivolous and snobbish. Thus, when it's budget crunch time, it is an easy thing to attack from a political perspective.

 

As for the funding issue, well, it's an issue in the US for two reasons.

 

One, because of misguided legislation. It forces tons of resources to be focused on disadvantaged kids because we've developed this crazy notion that no one should be allowed to fail. It forces further resources to be wasted on all sorts of standardized testing which adds no value to the children's education, but allows the bean counters to try their hand at measuring what cannot be objectively measured, and come up with more misguided rules in response to what they find.

 

Two, because education is expensive, no way around that. For the city I grew up in, the public schools consist of half of the total annual budget. They spend as much on education as they do on everything else (police, fire, streets, parks, public health, debt service, administration, etc.) combined. Because of this, the numbers dictate that whenever there is a budget crunch, some sacrifices have to be made in education since you can't make cuts and leave half the budget untouched. You don't have to cut music class specifically but you do have to cut something. And legislative commands from the state and from Washington limit your options as to what you can cut and remain in compliance with those requirements.

[Easy Bakes 253]

Cut sports rather then music.

Yea I know that will never happen.

but you could most likely prove sports programs are a huge financial  drain for most schools.

[flatron 83]

Cut sports rather then music.

Yea I know that will never happen.

but you could most likely prove sports programs are a huge financial  drain for most schools.

Bad idea. The western world is already becoming more and more fat...

But on financing it: What about stopping the useless "war on drugs"(+life sentences for petty crimes) and shifting the money that's used for that §"+*~&?!  to education?

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

if music education consists of a once a week period in high-school of choral vocal work, the expense comes down to the plant, one music teacher and an accompanist.  This is the minimum, and it is what I got in 1950 when things were very tight, indeed.  The grade IX class made up the 'junior choir' which occasionally met (all classes) in the school auditorium for a combined session and by year end was performing creditably enough to be used to public assemblies.  Music was a compulsory subject in Grade IX.

 

The 'senior choir' in my school, of which I was a member, was extra-curricular.  It used the same staff as the regular classes and basically consisted of those students who wanted to continue choral studies.  There was also a (rather poor) extra curricular orchestra for students who could afford to own an instrument.  There was an annual concert goal for the senior choir to perform some piece of musical theatre at the end of each school year.  At that time, available material was all Gilbert and Sullivan, so that's what we did.  I distinctly remember Trial by Jury, HMS Pinafore and Pirates of Penzance.  I was in the chorus mostly, but was invited and played Major General Stanley (the comic relief) in Pirates.  There were on-going plans for The Mikado, but I graduated into the world of work and academia and never knew what happened to that.

 

I belong to a somewhat musical generation.  Pretty much every family had a piano of some sort.  My grandmother had an upright and all my aunts, including my mother, could play it.  My father had a tin ear, more or less.  Even some 60 years later I still dabble in composition a little, and fool around with a keyboard occasionally (I don't have one at the moment).  At university I took some interesting courses in music appreciation, and have developed a strong musical taste, especially for music drama and music comedy.  I also am very attached to music parody.

 

Did early exposure help with this?  You bet.  It also led me by the nose, more or less, into the world of mathematics and logic.  I made a career of computer work when this was just getting going in the business sector, working as a programmer/analyst for some years then moving into support roles and finally into consulting before becoming a professor of computer science in a college.  Can't blame it all on the junior choir, but some of the meticulousness developed there sure helped.

[Easy Bakes 253]

 

Cut sports rather then music.

Yea I know that will never happen.

but you could most likely prove sports programs are a huge financial  drain for most schools.

Bad idea. The western world is already becoming more and more fat...

But on financing it: What about stopping the useless "war on drugs"(+life sentences for petty crimes) and shifting the money that's used for that §"+*~&?!  to education?

 

I didnt say get rid of physical education. just sports.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

By that, I take it to mean sports on an inter-mural basis.  It is almost impossible in today's competitive environment to avoid such things.  Some of it is over-hyped to the point where the only apparent raison d'être for the school is some sports team or other.  When this happens, it is time to start applying the brakes.  If funding comes from outside, fine, but public funds must not be used for these ego trips.

[flatron 83]

 

 

Cut sports rather then music.

Yea I know that will never happen.

but you could most likely prove sports programs are a huge financial  drain for most schools.

Bad idea. The western world is already becoming more and more fat...

But on financing it: What about stopping the useless "war on drugs"(+life sentences for petty crimes) and shifting the money that's used for that §"+*~&?!  to education?

 

I didnt say get rid of physical education. just sports.

 

Ah, OK, wasn't prepared for that. Sports in connection with school is PE for me, so yeah... But I agree with you, if every american highschool has those 'school teams', than this might be a point where one could save money. (Here, such things are catered for by clubs and organizations outside the school, so extracurricular sport in school consists of the one or the other track and fields or swimming tournament(or, if you live in the mountains, schools will also compete in skiing))