What Is the Value of Music in the Elementary School?

¶ … Elementary Music School Programs

Music Programs

Music programs in elementary schools are sometimes viewed as discretionary. The scope of curricula seems to grow increasingly broader and deeper with each passing year, and the pressure to meet learning standards is tremendous. Instruction that does not have a direct influence on student and school performance is viewed as optional -- a nice program to have if the school can afford it and if the overall learning goals are being met. This is a naive view. The power of music programs is substantial and sometimes astonishingly transformational. Two perspectives of the benefits of music programs in elementary schools are offered here: One is conventional and addresses the connections to improved brain functioning, while the second perspective focuses on access to music by children in poverty as a mechanism for social change and inclusion.

A Continuum of Benefits

A considerable amount of research has been devoted to the study of the benefits of learning to play music ("18 Benefits," 2009). In fact, recent research indicates that listening to music and playing a musical instrument can help to increase memory and otherwise stimulate the brain (Allyene, 2009). The impact of music lessons on children 3 to 4 1/2 years of age was the focus of a recent study (Allyene, 2009). A control group of 15 children did not receive any music lessons while their 22 counterparts participated in singing lessons and keyboard lessons (Allyene, 2009). The preschoolers who were given weekly keyboard lessons showed a 34% increase in their spatial-temporal skills, and the effect was long lasting (Allyene, 2009).

There is growing evidence that there are structural and functional differences in the brains of musicians compared to non-musicians ("18 Benefits," 2009). The connections between playing music and academic performance are quite clear ("18 Benefits," 2009). Children who play musical instruments typically have better motor skills and are better at hearing, storing, and remembering audio information than their non-musical peers ("18 Benefits," 2009). As the brain changes -- with pertinent areas of the brain actually enlarging in musicians -- children who play musical instruments tend to be more alert and attentive, more self-disciplined, better at planning, and good at perceiving emotions in others ("18 Benefits," 2009). In fact, children who learn the language of music are better at learning other languages and have stronger verbal memory of their own language ("18 Benefits," 2009). Interestingly, musicians are able to discern exactly what other people are feeling -- empathy, disappointment, and the like -- based on tone of voice ("18 Benefits," 2009).

Context and Implementation

The impact that an elementary school music program can have on students' lives -- and on the health of a community -- can best be evaluated within the quotidian context, which must include taking an inventory of resources, political will, and alternatives (Gestrich, 2009). In a community that has a plethora of resources, where families easily provide for the extra-curricular needs of their children, a music program may well exist outside of the school day (Gestrich, 2009). Like any other private instruction, say, for dance, tennis, ice skating, hockey, skiing, music instruction is a commodity that well-to-do families purchase for their children (Gestrich, 2009). In fact, in well-heeled communities with extant music programs at all grade levels, parents may arrange for private music lessons for their offspring on top of the in-school music activities (Gestrich, 2009).

When children attend school in a district that is not as well-supported -- where levies tend not to pass, for example, or where fund-raisers limp along -- a music program is not a commodity (Gestrich, 2009). Music programs are expensive, and so are easily judged as expendable by cash-strapped parents and school district administrators (Gestrich, 2009). Children may be expected to rent their own instruments, an option that will deny a goodly number of children from ever playing an instrument (Gestrich, 2009). If school staff manage to launch a music program in schools such as these, the program is basically boot-strapped -- which means that young aspiring musicians train their ears on inferior instruments, play in rooms without decent acoustics, and may learn to play instruments from instructors who have no experience with their particular instruments (Gestrich, 2009). A music program in a school with inadequate funding to purchase and maintain quality instruments may rely on choir, chorus, and voice programs as the staple offerings (Gestrich, 2009).