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CoreyWhittSecondEssay 3 - 04 May 2022 - Main.CoreyWhitt
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JCPenney, the Saxophone, and Advocating for Music Education | | | The Decay of Music Education in American Schools | |
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< | The American educational landscape of today has diminished the reach of such musical experiences in student’s lives, where legislatures, boards of education, and the public have deemed it “nice but not necessary.” The decline of music education has been on a steady march for the better part of four decades, with the National Endowment for the Arts placing the number of adults, ages 18 to 24, who participated in music classes, down by over one-third – only 34 percent of individuals engaged in music coursework during their compulsory education. Today more than 1.3 million elementary school students do not receive a music education, less than one-fifth of students in eighth-grade perform in a school ensemble, and high school music opportunities are relegated to the demands of high-stakes testing regimes and Advanced Placement coursework. | >
> | The American educational landscape of today has diminished the reach of such musical experiences in students' lives, where legislatures, boards of education, and the public have deemed it “nice but not necessary.” The decline of music education has been on a steady march for the better part of four decades, with the National Endowment for the Arts placing the number of adults, ages 18 to 24, who participated in music classes, down by over one-third – only 34 percent of individuals engage in music coursework during their compulsory education. Today more than 1.3 million elementary school students do not receive a music education, less than one-fifth of students in eighth-grade perform in a school ensemble, and high school music opportunities are relegated to the demands of high-stakes testing regimes and Advanced Placement coursework. | | | The disparities yawn when comparing suburban music offerings for those in urban and rural areas, or the music education opportunities of white to non-white students. Large metropolitan districts are the least likely to supply robust music education programs, while music education advocacy is shallowest amongst rural administrators. In settings such as these, schools rely on district coffers to sustain music education programs, and find their resources already stretched thin, while affluent suburban communities draw the bulk of their funding from outside administrative channels. | | | And we can burden the darkest of times because we have already lived to see the unbridled joy that lies on the other side of the final molto ritardando in Gustav Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony. | |
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< | A music education builds the footings for how see one another and live out our lives alongside them, and it extends far beyond the music classroom; to our family, strangers, sidewalks, and conversations. In a country that has slowly allowed our youngest to forgo a music education, it is no wonder that our discourse has become so caustic and bitter. Music fastens us to each other, and a music education secures the earliest strings. | >
> | A music education builds the footings for how we see one another and live out our lives alongside them, and it extends far beyond the music classroom; to our family, strangers, sidewalks, and conversations. In a country that has slowly allowed our youngest to forgo a music education, it is no wonder that our discourse has become so caustic and bitter. Music fastens us to each other, and a music education secures the earliest strings. | | | NAfME? and Music Education Advocacy |
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