So many schools districts today are experiencing budget cut after budget cut and are thus being forced to cut entire programs from their curriculum and one of the first to go is typically music. The downside of this decision is that most people do not understand how important a quality education in music, beginning at a young age, is to a student’s education. Music teaches a variety of different subjects, often without the students ever realizing it. Most people don’t realize that studying music can help make you smarter, and that by cutting these programs we are only hurting our students.
One of the largest benefits of music education is the fact that in a music class whether it is choir, band, orchestra, or just a general music class the student is not only learning music, but a variety of quite a few subjects. Music helps to teach students science, mathematics, geography, history, language arts, foreign language, and physical education (Yoh). Research shows that music education in the classroom helps to build some specific core values. These values include self discipline, to take instruction and criticism, dedication, teamwork, cultural sensitivity, to entertain, humility, practice, and hard work, just to name a few (Reimer). All of these reasons are very important examples as to why we should not cut music in our schools. Our students deserve the best education they can possibly receive and cutting music programs across the boards is a sure way of harming the educational process. The world we live in is centered on music; we are surrounded by it no matter where we go.
Another reason music education is so important is that many students are zealous, deeply involved listeners who can tell us, in depth, after only a few moments of hearing a popular piece, the backgrounds of the piece and of its performers, why they value it, how it relates to similar and different pieces, the musical qualities it