Report- Second Draft

Music is something that surrounds us on a daily basis. Whether you’re shopping in a store, listening to the radio in your car or when you’re on the platform waiting for the train, music is there. According to wikiepdia.com the definition of music is “expressed in terms of pitch, rhythm and the quality of sound. Music can also involve generative forms in time through the construction of patterns and combinations of natural stimuli principally sound.” In a way I would have to agree with this definition of what music is, but there is more to it than just pitch, rhythm and sound. Music plays such a huge role in our lives that it’s actually a subject that some schools teach.
So if music is such a big part of our lives then why are schools trying to take away funding from the arts and putting it into things that are more traditional like math and reading. I obviously don’t agree with what they are doing. “Music in the Classroom: Its Influence on Children's Brain Development, Academic Performance, and Practical Life Skills.”, this is an article that I found when I was researching the topic of music. The article basically said that children who are exposed to music, their abilities to perform better academically are enhanced. It also said that by learning about music and training with music can teach you life skills. This research shows that music can help students get better grades and basically become a well rounded person. Then why don’t schools spend more times on the arts. I guess more people think that teaching their students or children more about math, English or even history will get them further in life than some instrument will.
Liberal arts is usually one of the first things that is being cut from federal funding for schools because most of these politicians fell that these programs are taking time away from what is more “important” like math, reading and science. The way I feel about is that we spend most of our lives with our heads in our books just studying world history and trying to memorize the multiplication tables. Learning about music is something completely different because it’s opening up your mind to something completely different. With music it’s more hands on than any other subject, it’s a subject that allows a person to be very creative and become more dedicated. Another thing is that by starting to teach music at schools and then taking away the funding where does that leave the students that would like to pursue that instrument. The only option that is left for them is to go study at a private institution, which in most cases are very expensive.
I decided to make a little survey and give it out to some of the people that I work with and some family members to see how they feel about funding being cut. I decided to only survey ten people because I figured it would be easier. The age range for this survey ranged from sixteen to twenty-six. One out of the ten people played an instrument in school. One of these people is my cousin Natalia; she is twenty-six and has been playing the piano for twenty years. She played the piano all through high school and she majored in piano for her college degree. When I asked her how she felt about funding being cut from liberal arts programs, she said that it devastated her to know that a lot of kids won’t get the chance to learn to love an instrument like she did growing up in school. She feels that playing this instrument and learning all about it gave her a sense of pride because she got to learn something that was completely unknown to her and she got to master it. Another thing that she said was that she gained a lot of life lessons from learning to play the piano. One thing she learned was to apply herself and that if she wanted to great at something she was going to have practice, practice, and practice. Another thing that she learned was confidence, and being able to think outside that box when she was told to write her own song.
Out of the survey that was basically the only insightful thing that I got because the other people that took the survey none of them played an instrument. But they all end up saying basically the same thing about music and how funding for it shouldn’t be removed. I absolutely agree with what they think. All types of liberal arts programs shouldn’t be looked down upon as not being as important as the other subjects. I feel that music can teach a person so many different things that something math or science is going to teach you. Learn about music opens up your eyes and your mind.
I think that more people need to open up their ears and just take time and just listen to their surrounds because music is always surrounds us. It’s unfortunate that most governors can’t see how important just playing an instruments or singing in the schools choir is to the development of a child or even a human being. Just imagine if one hundreds years ago governors or presidents saying to stop the teaching of music. We won’t have the amazing signers, composers, violinist, pianists and many other artists. Life would be extremely boring and dull. I feel that if these people keep cut the funding for the arts then the future of music is history.