Benefits
"Music gives me a sense of accomplishment and pride. It enables me to put myself in other people’s shoes. It gives me the chance to learn something new and complicated. I approach homework like a new music piece. I want to learn it and be good at it."
— Tinu Sonuga, flute student
WHY MUSIC EDUCATION IS IMPORTANT*
- Music is a universal language, cutting across racial, cultural, social, educational, and economic barriers and enhances cultural appreciation and awareness
- Music leads to developing higher order thinking skills including analysis, synthesis, evaluation, and problem solving
- Music improves academic achievement-- enhancing test scores, attitudes, social skills, critical and creative thinking
- Music provides opportunities for self-expression, bringing the inner world into the outer world of concrete reality
- Music make it possible to use personal strengths in meaningful ways and to bridge into understanding sometimes difficult abstractions through these strengths
- Music integrates mind, body, and spirit
- Music leads to both independence and collaboration
- Music provides immediate feedback and opportunities for reflection
- Music merges the learning of process and content
- Musical symbols are as important as letters and numbers
* Adapted from Dee Dickinson’s article “Music and the Mind” (1993)