Researched Argument, Music, College Term Papers.com


		Data Bases
		• Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism?

		Links
		• Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com

		Free Essays
		• Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers

Search Lots of Essays

Back to Subjects - Music

Researched Argument

Researched Argument It seems that from the beginning of time, music has been an important part of people’s lives. However, today, it seems that the number of people who advocate the everlasting presence of music is dwindling, and the number of people only concerned with economic stability and the core curriculum in schools is rising. Budgets in schools are being cut, and the music programs are usually at the beginning of the list when a particular area is to be disbanded. Action is being taken against the loss of music education in schools, and the people fighting to save and rejuvenate this precious resource have established many strong arguments. Meghann C. Russell of Towson University says , "Several studies have shown that [music] has a strong effect on children’s ability to succeed in many important areas of education and life" (Russell). This is possibly the most effective argument that the music education advocates have. The arguments wholly include the emotional values of the music and the intimate relationships people can gain through it, the ability that music has to help children in most or even all aspects of education, and the way that the music helps a child’s brain develop differently from a child who has had no musical education. Music is one of the only things in a human’s life that is capable of evoking nearly every different emotion. Thus meaning that is also has the capability to create strong psychological effects as well. When people stumble for the right words to accurately express themselves, they will often times become very frustrated and annoyed by the inability to do so. Music, however, provides an "emotional outlet"(Russell) and allows people to express themselves in a truly non-verbal way. In a way, people are actually able to speak through the music they are making, and all their emotions can just flow right out, uninterrupted and perfectly clear. Once a person has achieved the ability to express themselves using music, the person will be capable of an improved sense of self-assurance, higher level of sensitivity, and an over-all improved sense of well-being. School-aged people are known to have high levels of stress and anxiety because of life’s everyday pressures, and music has been proven to be an effective release valve for these problems. Because 93% of American citizens believe that music is a very important part of a child’s education, it is surprising how much money is actually being taken away from the programs which take an active role in giving this valuable part of education to a child(Russell). This vital money seems to go elsewhere in the schools, such as to the math or the science departments. Some researchers argue , "Music courses may not turn students into musicians; but on the other hand, chemistry classes don’t necessarily make them chemists either" (Kupferberg 1). Music "opens doors"(Russell) to things that children could hardly seem to be imaginable. For them, the opportunities appear magnificent and endless. When a child is doing poorly in a subject, s/he, if given the opportunity, may have music to look to as an area of success, instead of failure, and this has the potential to greatly improve child’s self-esteem. There have been experiments done with pre-school age children to prove whether or not music helps with spatial-temporal knowledge, the ability to conceive the visual, physical world around them. The children were divided into three different groups. One group received thirty minute group singing lessons and ten to fifteen minutes of individual keyboard instruction per week. The second group was given computer lessons, and the third group received no treatment of any kind. The group involved in the music lessons scored up to approximately thirty four percent higher on the tests that followed the experiment than did the other two groups(Russell). Thus proving a point. Music has also been proven as a performance enhancement on standardized tests, such as the SAT, with music students scoring approximately twenty to forty points higher than students with no art or art appreciation studies. Because music is thought of as such an enjoyable activity, students that are involved are less likely to drop out of school than if they were not involved in it at all(Russell). Music skills that are taught at pre-adolescent ages can enhance abstract reasoning skills that are used for math and science more so than computers can, making music the seemingly logical choice. Fractions tend to be difficult for children to learn quickly, and through the study of music they are taught by using a hands-on approach that incorporates using the time and rhythms of the music. Knowing that they have the ability to accomplish certain things gives these students the skills and motivation that they need to succeed in the "real world." According to the National Association for Music Education (MENC), music gives children the necessary ability to think clearly, study effectively, and communicate(MENC). The statistics from a 1999 study show that music students receive more honors and awards, more "A’s and B’s" in their classes, and hold more class offices than the other students in the schools(MENC 1999).Other statistics reveal that while 12.14 percent of the students in the total population of a school that remained nameless in the study are labeled as disruptive, only 8.08 percent of the music students in this same school received this label(MENC). It has been said that music "has an impact on all levels of education"(Russell). To prove this point, someone once said, "…(sic)Musical training increases speech fluency; folk songs improve a student’s general knowledge of history and geography; rhythm training abets the development of math skills; and the learning of new melodies builds the memory" (Nikiforuk). The last argument that is to be presented is the argument of how music education at early ages affects the development of the children’s brains compared to the development of the brains of children not experiencing music. When exposed to ongoing musical training at an early age, children’s brains begin to organize themselves and develop to their fullest capacity (Harvey). In the early years of childhood, neurons in the brain form connections with other neurons in the brain due to the experiences that the child encounters, and if these neutrons remain unstimulated during this time, the neutrons just die away and "are lost to that child for ever" (Russell). This is to show that an extensive music program should begin in pre-school or elementary school and continue on throughout the years, hopefully uninterrupted by budget cuts and fund-shifting. It has been proposed that music speeds up the neural firing patterns that deal with spatial-temporal relationships, thus helping to develop certain areas of the brain that are used for reading and comprehension(Russell). Before reaching the adolescent years, learning to play the piano or a stringed instrument can help students to have more brain development that increases the sensitivity of the nerves in the fingers, making them forever good with their hands. In another study entitled , "Musical and Spatial Task Performance," conducted by Francis Rauscher in 1993, the "Mozart Effect" was discovered. The subjects were a group a college students who were tested to see if music by Mozart had "any sort of effect on their spatial intelligence"(Rauscher). The students listened to Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos for ten minutes, and were then given a test evaluating their spatial IQ. They scored about nine points higher on the test after being exposed to the music rather than listening to relaxation sounds or silence. Though this improvement only lasted about fifteen minutes, the study was repeated in 1994 and it was discovered that if the students listened to Mozart’s sonata every day for a period of time, their scores on the tests would increase daily(Rauscher). The connection between listening to music and improved intelligence has been made, however, it seems that playing an instrument has an even stronger effect. Rauscher stated,"…(sic)actively making music has greater benefits for spatial temporal intelligence than merely listening to music"(Rauscher). With all this proof that music serves a very important purpose in the lives of today’s young people, it can be seriously questioned why people think that it is unnecessary and want to do away with it completely in some cases. Parents are always concerned about the happiness of their child, and it has been proven through studies that music has some of the most positive effects on students. These children are helped out emotionally and mentally, their education is expanded and broadened, and their brain is able to physically perform better simply because they have been and still are exposed to music. So why do away with it if it is so important? Bibliography:

Word Count: 1445