Witzen 1

Witzen, Maria
Rachel Efstathion
ENC 2135
8 March 2016
Project Two: Research Report Final Draft
1. Introduction
Music affects more of our lives than we realize. It appears in commercials, movies, grocery
stores, elevators, and almost everywhere else in the world. Since I started taking music classes
in ninth grade, I began to realize that music is truly an integral part of daily life. Personally, I
have experienced an overwhelming growth, both mentally and in maturity, while I have been
immersed in music. In my time involved in a music program, two of my band directors have
been let go due to budget cuts and other forms of unfairness, and the program, along with its
members, dwindled before my eyes. The program had to forfeit instructors, but at the same time,
almost every sports team received brand new uniforms each year. The numbers just dont add
up. It infuriates me to see my mentors lose their jobs simply because band isnt as high on the
schools priority list. I believe that the arts are just as important as any other academic or athletic
activity throughout schools. Instead of putting them aside and leaving them to dwindle away, we
should emphasize them even more, and through that, I believe this country will thrive
academically, artistically, and culturally. Emphasizing the arts in middle and high schools is
important to help students become well-rounded in all areas of study, so this project is geared
towards middle and high school aged students, and their respective schools that need to
understand the benefits of a solid musical and artistic education.

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It is no secret that due to the ever-fluctuating United States economy, many schools and
universities around the country are experiencing budget cuts. Unfortunately, in many schools, the
first things to go in the midst of a recession are the humanities or arts programs, classes, or
teachers. To many administrators, the arts are the least necessary to keep in a school, because in
the grand scheme of things, arts are extracurricular activities, and other studies should come
before them. Even sports are put as higher of a necessity than the arts. I propose that the arts
and music classes should not only be preserved in schools and universities, but they should also
be as much of a priority as sports and academic classes.
The arts and humanities are on the decline because of the constant increase of technological
resources and available, easier ways of entertainment, like iPhones, iPads, and other means of
technology. Since the birth of the iPhone in 2007, handheld entertainment has consistently been
on the rise. It has now become so much easier to be entertained than ever before, and
participating in an artistic extracurricular activity is now secondary to technology, just like its
secondary position to athletics. However, the arts have expanded to reach those who are
technologically savvy. People are able to post videos to YouTube and Facebook with tips and
tricks on how to play an instrument better or how to sketch and paint. The options are truly
endless, and through the social aspect of technology, people can communicate with each other
and constantly learn more about their craft. SmartMusic, which is a computer and tablet
program, is designed especially for band programs at schools. It aids in teaching students to play
their instruments, practice at home or anywhere you can take a tablet, and find multitudes of
music literature to play. This program combines playing music and the wide world of
technology in order to allow for convenience, experience, and enjoyment. In Project Three I

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plan to propose a way that recent technological advances, such as social media, can be used to
spark a childs interest in picking up an instrument and becoming involved in music.
2. Literature Review
Since my topic, a lack of music education in schools is mostly prevalent within school or
music journals, all of my current sources are found within those types of journals and articles. I
found a good portion of them outlining some sort of issue about music education, whether it was
mentioning the lack of music education, like my topic suggests, or defies my topic, and insists
that music education is completely accounted for in almost all schools. I only found one that
disagreed with the others, and this one was called Apparently, we Disappeared. This appeared
in the Music Educators Journal in 2011. This source examines the fact that music education,
even though it is in decline in some areas and not as entertaining, still pushes to live on within
America. It gives multiple facts of what reports have been done regarding music education and
gives beneficial ways that educators can make music seem more positive toward a world that
may be indifferent about it. This journal says that music and music education still exists, but it is
a fluctuating art in many places. It also shows evidence of research done about music improving
behavior and test scores of children involved in music programs (Richerme, 36).
The rest of my current sources confirmed what I still believe: that music education is a dying
art form in schools around the country. The other ones mention some ways in which music
education is not given as much support compared to other activities on school campuses. The
source, Music Education in the State of Oklahoma: Perceptions from the K-12 Educational
Community, shows a specific areas views on how their schools view music education. In this
journal, the authors investigated an educational community from Kindergarten to twelfth grade in
the state of Oklahoma to determine how they perceived the importance of music education. The

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differences between the responses by school administrators and actual music educators were
interesting to read. Another purpose of this study was to ask the various members of the schools
how they would go about improving music within the schools. The majority of answers included
funding, but there were other issues brought up in the study. The study also explains the
economic issues of America at the time, and explains the various statistics of budget cuts of
many places (Ciorba, 31). This is a useful source for my topic because it truly explains average
peoples opinions within a school system on their views of music education. Another source on
this topic, Another Perspective: Struggling Toward Wholeness in Music Education highlights
the ways in which schools lack the effort or funding to continue to uphold the importance of
music education. This source describes the overwhelming lack of wholeness in music
education in America. It talks of how in many forms of education, not only music, educators are
only giving a bare minimum effort, instead of truly pouring into their students lives. It also says
that in the midst of drastic cuts toward music programs across the country, music educators
should not be living modestly, but instead, they should fight to protect what they love in order
to not only survive, but to progress in the world of education (Reimer, 25). Good things will
happen if music educators and administrators grasp the opportunities instead of letting them go
by. The last source in this category highlights the benefits and importance of music education.
This source is from the same journal or bulletin as another source, but it is from a different
author and from a different year. This source, in contrast, explores the issue, Does Music
Education Research Matter?, and attempts to figure out the best possible ways to go about
researching music education in order to present it in a beneficial way. Music teachers argue that
not many will research music education, and those who do research it do not present their
research in ways that show its understanding and benefits toward music education (Brand, 79).

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This source is useful because it shows me ways I can present the benefits of music education on
both students and teachers.
A few of my sources discuss the scientific findings of the benefits of music education on
children in schools. A source by J. L. Vitale is interesting because it tests the age-old theory
music makes you smarter, and it presents the found data in article form. It eventually points
out that the theories are correct, and music does have some of an influence on the smartness of
a child. It argues at the end that music itself should be the entire focus of music education. One
who studies music has been proven to excel usually in math and science, and this study proves to
be generally correct (Vitale, 328-336). This is an important source to me because it proves one
of the point I made about how being educated in music improves ones capacity to be a better
student in other areas as well. My final source by Marie McCarthy and J.S. Goble discusses the
changing times in music education. This source is quite a bit more philosophical than the others.
It addresses the ever-changing times regarding the philosophy of music education. It debates the
basis for music education as a whole, and touches on the sociological, functional, aesthetic,
cognitive, and paraxial schools of thought regarding music education. It explains the role of
music as an art, and in a psychological way as well (McCarthy, 22). This source is important
because it outlines a more scientific, complex way of looking at the role of music and music
education on children and teenagers.
3. Interview
I interviewed Jonathon McGrath over email. I chose to interview him because he has
experienced many different realms of band programs all over the state of Florida. He is currently
involved in the world-class percussion group called STRYKE Percussion, and he will travel to
Dayton, Ohio to compete for a world title in April of this year. He also is a marching band

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technician for a few high schools and he gives private lessons to kids on guitar, bass guitar, and
drums. He has experienced the middle school, high school, and college band scenes, and he has
seen for himself the failing of a band program in a school that should have enough funding for it,
but chooses to instead put that money elsewhere. Through this interview process, I was hoping
to get another opinion on the lack of effort put into band programs across the country. I am glad
I did because he provided a second look and verified some of my suspicions. For someone who
has been involved in music almost his whole life, he has seen a lot of change over the years.
When he answered, People involved in music can use their lives to set the example of why
music is good for both children and adults. It's our responsibility as musicians to pass on the
information our teachers gave us because we know how much it impacted us when our teachers
taught us, it truly showed me what I thought, and it also confirmed one of my peer-reviewed
sources on the same question. When I asked him What do you think we can all do to prevent
the arts from dying altogether, he answered with They are in constant need of support, and I
think that can only happen through proper funding, education, and attention. This opens up
options for my further research into the upcoming project three.
4. Conclusion
Over the course of researching this topic and interviewing, I have mostly found that my
sources agree with my original thesis: music education is an art that is in recession due to many
factors, and I say we should not let it crumble. It seems like in most places in the country,
budget cuts are being directed at music programs and band teachers are the first to be sacrificed
to this ever-fluctuating economy. The decline in the arts classes in schools and universities is
detrimental to the student bodys welfare as a whole, and they should never be the first programs
to be removed from a place of education. An emphasis needs to be placed on preserving the arts,

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especially in the areas of music. Thousands of years of history have been built on a solid
foundation of the arts and humanities, from the ancient Egyptians hieroglyphics to the old
spirituals of the slaves in the South. To strip away the arts is to leave a world stoic and
uncultured for the future generations to come. I believe that the arts are just as important as any
other academic or athletic activity throughout schools. Instead of putting them aside and leaving
them to dwindle away, we should emphasize them even more, and through that, I believe this
country will thrive academically, artistically, and culturally.

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Works Cited
Brand, Manny. Hong Kong Music Teachers Ask: "Does Music Education Research Matter?
Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education.169 (2006): 79-86. Print.
Ciorba, Charles R., and Amy Seibert. Music Education in the State of Oklahoma: Perceptions
from the K-12 Educational Community. Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music
Education.193 (2012): 31-43. Print.
McCarthy, Marie, and J. S. Goble. "Music Education Philosophy: Changing Times." Music
Educators Journal 89.1 (2002): 19-26. Print.
McGrath, Jonathon. Personal interview. 23 February 2016.
Reimer, Bennett. "Another Perspective: Struggling Toward Wholeness in Music Education."
Music Educators Journal 99.2 (2012): 25-9. Print.
Richerme, Lauren Kapalka. "Apparently, we Disappeared." Music Educators Journal 98.1
(2011): 35-40. Print.
Vitale, J. L. Music makes you smarter: A new paradigm for music education? perceptions and
perspectives from four groups of elementary education stakeholders. Canadian Journal
of Education, 34(3), (2011): 317-343.