Tuesday, July 30, 2002

By CARA HALSTEAD

With all the state-mandated standardized tests young students are required to take in school today, as well as the usual academic and social pressures, many students look forward to music class as a welcome change of pace.

But music is more than just entertainment. Music instruction may very well help students achieve higher scores on those very tests. Numerous studies have shown increased learning capacity in children exposed to music.

Higher scores

According to reports by the College Entrance Examination Board, students of the arts excel on the SAT. In 2001, SAT takers with experience in music scored an average of 60 points higher on the verbal portion of the test and 42 points higher on the math portion than students with no coursework or experience in the arts.

In addition, a research team exploring the link between music and intelligence reported that music training is superior to computer instruction in enhancing children’s abstract reasoning skills necessary for learning math and science. The findings, published in the February 1997 issue of Neurological Research, are the result of a two-year experiment with preschoolers, led by psychologist Dr. Frances Rauscher of the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh and physicist Dr. Gordon Shaw of the University of California at Irvine. Their work found that those children who received piano instruction performed 34 percent higher than others on tests measuring spatial-temporal ability.

Not bad for a generally fun addition to the school experience.

The National Association for Music Education promotes the importance of exposing children to music BEFORE kindergarten.

The popularity of music programs for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers indicates that perhaps parents are well aware of the benefits of exposure of young children to music. The extraordinary success of the “Baby Mozart” tapes are also an example of this.

Increasing enrollment

Participation in music programs in schools is also on the rise. New York and New Jersey both report increased enrollment in music classes as well as additional staffing hired to accommodate the increase.

“It would seem there has been an increase in the number of students enrolled in music instruction in New Jersey,” says Dale Schmid, Visual and Performing Arts Coordinator in the Career and Academic Standards Office of NJDOE. “A number of schools are expanding their programs and new music teachers are being hired regularly. We hope to make strides for an even healthier music environment for the future.”

In New York State, the Education Department reports an increase in enrollment in elementary music and significant increases in performing groups (band, orchestra, and chorus) at elementary and junior high levels. These numbers have steadily increased since 1975, despite declining general enrollment.

Ramapo Central School District in New York is one district that anticipates continued expansion of music in their schools in the coming years. Music participation is also on the rise in Dumont and Alpine, among others.

Dr. Bruce Sabatini, principal of Dumont High School for the past three years, says their music program is going strong. “We have a very active marching band that performs throughout the county and state, says Sabatini. “The enrollment numbers are going up in chorus where there are approximately 75 kids in each of two classes. There are approximately 160 kids in band class and only 750 students in the school.”

Setting standards

New Jersey Department of Education New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards state that through an education in the arts, students enhance their perceptual, physical, and technical skills and learn that pertinent techniques and technologies apply to the successful completion of tasks. New Jersey students are required to take one year of music, chorus, visual, practical, or fine arts.

The Standards are one outcome of the education reform effort generated in the 1980s. With the passage of the Goals 2000: Educate America Act, the national goals are written into law, naming the arts as a core academic subject as important to education as English, mathematics, history, civics and government, geography, science, and foreign language.

The National Standards for Music Education are based on the idea that knowing and practicing the arts disciplines are fundamental to the healthy development of children’s minds and spirits.

The National Standards for Music Education ask, among other skills, that students be able to communicate at a basic level in the four arts disciplines: dance, music, theatre, and the visual arts by the time they have completed secondary school. They should also be able to communicate proficiently in at least one art form.

In New York State, learning standards for the arts were revised in 1996. Students are required to complete at least one unit in one of four arts areas, music, theater, dance, or the visual arts before they can graduate.

The assessments continually being developed by New York State use examples of successful school programs that include tying arts education to the core curriculum subjects of English, math, social studies, and science. In one school district, journals that music students keep help them with their writing skills, and a visual arts class includes discussions of culture, history, even math.

Dr. Diane Fellows, Superintendent of the Alpine School District, says that her student population is small but very interested in visual and performing arts. Fellows is a proponent of exposing children to music education at an early age. “This early exposure develops interest,” Fellows says. “Music is considered an integral part of the curriculum in Alpine and an essential part of the learning experience for each child.”

The Alpine School District rewrote their arts curriculum last summer and implemented the new program last year. It is aligned with New Jersey Department of Education curriculum standards. Alpine students take instrumental instruction three days a week. They may participate in full band starting in the 5th grade. Half of the students in Alpine play an instrument.

Expanding programs

Recent changes in the curriculum at Alpine included bringing music instruction into each classroom and having all students sing and perform. The entire faculty of Alpine went to Lincoln Center to learn to compose music with various instruments. A group from Lincoln Center also came to Alpine and did a program called “Shakespeare in Our Times” which featured Shakespeare’s lyrics set to modern music.

“The philosophy of the program in Alpine is to teach personal creativity and expressiveness through observation, composition, improvisation and performance,” Fellows adds. “The music program is designed to support the broader school curriculum.”

At Richard P. Connor Elementary School in Suffern, NY, the music program is also expanding beginning next year with additional instruction time, according to Mary DiPersio, principal. Every year the high school band comes and plays to the students to pique their interest in music. Last year, Little Hawk, a Native American musician, also played ethnic instruments that included shells, beads and drums.

Parents who want to foster a love of music in their children may want to investigate music programs for young children at libraries as well as formal instruction that includes singing, moving, listening, and playing instruments. Music instruction through play is key for preschoolers. Children enjoy group music time and can benefit from the social aspects of sharing and making music together.

Classroom conflicts

The future of music in schools will include continued debates about the merits and drawbacks of pulling children from the classroom for instrument instruction. Dumont High School has addressed this issue by including an optional period of music instruction before the school day begins.

Some advocates of expanding music programs in schools propose programs that include music across the curriculum (music as a form of instruction in each area of learning). Alpine has implemented this type of program and parents and the Board of Education have been very supportive.

Increasing music programs in schools, however, sometimes raises debates among teachers unions and school districts as to whether all areas of the arts should be increased and the appropriate staffing requirements for each program. Parents can show their support for music in schools through school board meetings, contacting political representatives, and through numerous non-profit organizations, many of which can be found on the Web. (See resources).

Cara Halstead of Suffern is a writer and mother.

Resources:

www.mustcreate.org - Music in Schools Today. You will find here interviews with young artists, music mentors to answer questions, contests and other resources to help young people enjoy and possibly pursue a career in music.

www.aep-arts.org/Home1.html Arts Education Partnership

www.musicfriends.org/brochure.html Music Friends

www.amc-music.com American Music Conference

www.musica.uci.edu MuSICA

National Standards for Music Education

1. Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.

2. Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.

3. Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments.

4. Composing and arranging music within specified guidelines.

5. Reading and notating music.

6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.

7. Evaluating music and music performances.

8. Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts.

9. Understanding music in relation to history and culture.

From National Standards for Arts Education. Copyright © 1994 by Music Educators National Conference (MENC). Used by permission. The complete National Arts Standards and additional materials relating to the Standards are available from MENC -- The National Association for Music Education, 1806 Robert Fulton Drive, Reston, VA 20191.

The National Association for Music Educators suggestions for standards reflect the following beliefs concerning the musical learning of young children:

1. All children have musical potential.

2. Children bring their own unique interests and abilities to the music learning environment.

3. Very young children are capable of developing critical thinking skills through musical ideas.

4. Children come to early-childhood music experiences from diverse backgrounds.

5. Children should experience exemplary musical sounds, activities, and materials.

6. Children should not be encumbered with the need to meet performance goals.

7. Children's play is their work.

8. Children learn best in pleasant physical and social environments.

9. Diverse learning environments are needed to serve the developmental needs of many individual children.

10. Children need effective adult models.

1012