What if we took music away?

I’m a commentator for BamRadio network, and was prepping for a recent podcast about music funding in the schools. I have a good friend and roommate from college who has been a music teacher for nearly 20 years, as well as the Music Coordinator for the entire school distract. I decided to ask her a question.

Being delightfully as opinionated about music as Pam is, (and in the trenches every day), I knew I would get a great answer. What I didn’t expect was the emotions and memories of my own school music experience that her answer would trigger.

My Question: What is the impact on students when we take music out of schools?

Her answer:
This has been really good for me to reflect at this time of year when work gets pretty challenging and I’m tempted to count the minutes until the last day of school.

In my opinion, the number one impact is that there is a large group of students who lose out on experiencing a sense of belonging and purpose, (especially in middle and high school when that is so important).

For me and so many others I know, music is what gave us some kind of identity – we weren’t jocks or cheerleaders or druggies or theatre people, we didn’t have some ethnic group, or belong to the FFA – we were band or choir geeks and we knew that we belonged to something bigger than ourselves.

The 40 – 100 (or however big your band, orchestra or choir was) other kids were our cronies, our peeps, our brothers and sisters; they had our backs. We got out of our music groups what many kids are looking for when they join gangs – a sense of family and belonging.

I have seen kids who were “social misfits” blossom and become leaders through being successful in music and earning the respect of other students because of their success. I have seen shy, quiet girls become confident and vivacious because of the admiration they receive for their musical talent. I have seen awkward boys become self-assured young men because of their performance experiences. I am so proud of my students – watching them grow from kindergarten through high school.

Again, at least for me, the other great impact is applying hard work to achieve excellence, to work toward perfection – not just being good at something – being better than we ever dreamed we could be, and having that moment when it all comes together and touches your soul.

I have always been a good student – A’s in school, high honor roll, cum laude, etc., but music is the only academic area where moments of high achievement have touched my soul. No term paper or science lab ever did that. As a working adult, I apply those high standards to everything I do.

When we take music away, we take those moments away.

-posted by Miss Analiisa, whose realizes that her happiest memories of school center around music, whether it be singing “Don Gato” in third grade, being picked for “the solo” in 6^th grade band (and totally flubbing it at the concert, but my band mates cheered me on anyway), or playing in a group of 400 other musicians in all-state band and feeling part of something magical.