Music Education - Ursula K. Le Guin Quote

“It had never occurred to me before that music and thinking are so much alike. In fact you could say music is another way of thinking….”

--Ursula K. Le Guin

Ursula K. Le Guin makes an excellent point in her quote; music and thinking are so much alike that it is almost as if they are one and the same. Music has a huge impact on the brain. It has been proven that it makes contributions to the development of cognitive and perceptual skills, refines the development of the brain and entire neurological system, and connects and develops the motor systems of the brain in a way that cannot be done by any other activity (Mickela). Since music has such a huge impact on the brain, it is evident that music education is important and should therefore remain an important key factor of kindergarten through high school students’ education.

Many people will argue that music education is important and should remain in elementary through high school education. These people have looked at studies that show that music improves a student’s personal expression, self-discipline, self-esteem, creative abilities, dexterity, coordination, thinking skills, and listening skills. It is through the improvements in these areas that the student advances in other areas as well, making them life-long learners. With the ability to have better thinking skills, listening skills, and creative abilities, the student improves in his or her writing, communication skills, as well as analytical skills, opening up a plethora of ways of learning, thinking, and interacting.

Learning to read music benefits a student in numerous ways. The student’s ability to perform the necessary skills for reading, listening, anticipating, forecasting, memory training, recall skills, concentration techniques, and speed reading, are all enhanced (Mickela). The enhancement of these skills, combined with the improvements of the aforementioned skills, provides the music student with the possibility of earning a higher grade point average and higher SAT scores in all areas (no comma) than the student not in music. These statistics show that music education is vital for our students and should therefore be kept in the schools (Mickela).

However, some people (no “would”) view music education as a luxury that is simply too expensive. They feel that it costs schools too much money to keep these programs up and running. The instruments and their upkeep alone cost schools thousands of dollars. Officials feel that this money could be better spent on textbooks and other less extravagant learning materials. Add in the often overlooked yet all-too-necessary expenditure of paying extra instructors to teach music, and the numbers begin to add up. Though this may not seem like a big deal, many school districts suffer from severe budget cuts. This is money that could be spent on more “practical” materials. Since these people feel that music programs cost too much money, schools have been cutting them completely out of their systems to save money. Recently many states, including California, have been removing music programs from school systems to balance their tighter budgets.

Many school systems, as well as educational officials, do not see music programs having any relevance in the long run on a student’s education, so as schools face budget problems the “expendable” music classes are the first to go. These officials believe that since our world is progressing technologically at a rapid rate, students should instead focus on math and science classes since these classes will be the ones to aid them in the future with their careers. Since education is largely driven by what business says it needs in terms of trained workers, and in most businesses