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Mikala VanDyke

Professor Malcolm Campbell

UWRT 1104

2/13/17

Topic Proposal: Academic Impact of Music Education

Introduction/Overview

Schools across the country are beginning to change their curriculum specifically in the

arts. When schools lose funding, they have to make cuts to their classes or teachers to

compensate for the lost money. Oftentimes, the classes that get cut are arts related, and schools

across the country are in danger of losing that creative impact in their subjects. How does music

education enrich a students academic performance?

Some may think that music is useless and doesn't have potential benefits academically,

but there have been studies to show the differences of students who may or may not study music.

One study stated that students involved in music scored an average of 63 points higher in verbal

content and 44 points higher in math compared to students who weren't involved in music.

Introducing music to anyone, even at a young age, can help improve academic skills and make

students more interested in learning. (Nuss, Kristin R. 20 Important Benefits of Music in Our

Schools.) In order to learn more about my topic, I used the Atkins Library database and found

useful articles and books that provided more depth to my topic. Going to a briefing of how to use

the database was very helpful as the librarian helped me search for key words that

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could improve my outcomes. I was able to bookmark the articles I used to gather more

information. I sought the help of my high school band director, Gordon Snyder, to gather his

thoughts about my topic and what I could add to make the topic less broad. He gave great insight

because of his experience in the field of music education and I will continue to use him as a

personal resource.

In public schools, some parents often dont see the benefits of having any arts classes as

electives. Many people focus strictly on academics, such as; Reading, Writing, Math, Science,

and Social Studies. The people that believe in strict academic rule will not be the first people to

donate money to save the programs; since most colleges look for strong academic grades, or

even sports ability. Parents want what will make their child more valuable as they approach

college age, which is a contributing reason why the music and arts programs in school is slowly

depleting.

Initial Inquiry Question(s)

Is music actually beneficial to the academic portion of common core? It would be very

difficult to mathematically obtain any statistic that would predict the usefulness of music in

education, however, one just has to look at the impact music makes on the commercial world to

see how people respond to music. Without music, life looses its sharp edge.

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My Interest in this Topic

Music has been involved in my personal life for many years. Throughout High School

and various struggles, music has always been there. As a future educator, combining education

and music is very important to me. Seeing the impact that music has had on my life, I am

interested in seeing what music can do in someone elses life. If music isnt able to be funded in

public schools, then children will lack the spirit and life that music offers in their curriculum.

Everybody expresses their creative side in different ways, but keeping those resources available

to students is crucial to their artistic development. I hope to learn in researching this project the

various dimensions of the importance of music and to see if music truly makes a difference in

building creativity in schools.

Next Steps

To find more information about my topic, I will use the library as a main resource to

search through the database and ERIC in order to gather valid information to insert in my paper. I

will also use various websites and articles that relate to the main idea of my topic and use those

as different view-points. I would like to meet with my High School band director again to talk

about his opinion on the subject. I hope to get more insight from my peers to see different

spectrums of opinions between academics and arts.