Home - Leadership - Summer
Institute - Links - Calendar - UNISON |
Better minds through music Reading, Writing and Music: Why Music Belongs at the Center of the
Curriculum Drawn from a public address in the "Westmont Downtown Lecture Series," and also available in a print version in "The Westmont College Magazine," Winter 2009 |
|||
By Michael Shasberger, D.M.A.
I do not seek to diminish the significance of athletics, administration, other academic
disciplines, or the challenges of our complex contemporary society. The purpose of my
remarks is to assist in the public discourse by reinforcing the understanding of the
essential nature of music education (and by association all arts education) in the
curriculum of the public, or any other, educational program. The question of what to I have lived with these questions for a while. I brought along some tokens of my
experience that remind me of various points along the way. I am fortunate to have one of the last Life Credentials issued by the State of California for teaching K–12 music before the state began to issue credentials that require periodic renewal (and the accompanying fees that go with renewal). I brought this little ‘Foot’ pin that I wore on the picket lines for the teacher’s strike of 1977 when we insisted on a fair pay increase without cutting programs like music, and my old Music Educators National Conference membership pin. I am pleased to sa As a teacher asking students to write their philosophy of music education, I encouraged them to avoid the secondary justifications, and focus on the primary purposes of music in our lives, but it is increasingly difficult not to do both as study after study shows the profoundly significant impact of the secondary aspects of music on intellectual and social development. I will nonetheless start with an effort to describe the fundamental nature of the arts and music in the human condition and its corollary place in the essential body of knowledge of our culture, and the educational systems we put in place to preserve and advance that culture. Go way back: From the very dawn of civilization art has been a priority for humanity. Every primitive tribal society known to us includes a significant component of musical expression, usually played out in dance, instrumental and vocal idioms. Musical activity forms and shapes the ‘rhythms’ of everyday life, seasons, and the understanding of the spiritual dimension of every aboriginal society. The sole legacy of some cultures is the work of their artisans who painted cave walls, carved stone tablets and crafted pottery whose artistic character far exceeds the requirement of its function. In short, even when survival was an all consuming challenge, music and art exist in the center of the culture and presumably the education of those who were be charged with carrying on that culture. Ultimately, throughout history it is the artists and musicians who we remember and who
we think of when we remember a time and place in history. From the cave paintings off
of San Marcos road to the music of the ages, it is the artistic achievement of preceding
generations that will be remembered when the temporal power brokers, passing
politicians and titans of industry have lost their influence and passed into the forgotten Johann August Ernesti or Johann Sebastian Bach Filippo Maria Visconti, or Antonio Stradivari Hieronymus von Colloredo or Wolfgang Mozart William Congreve or Ludwig Van Beethoven The former are leading politicians, who were often pitted against the interests of the musicians and artisans in the second column. Famous now only for their hostility and lack of support for their well beloved and treasured adversaries and for the essential arts that were created by those artists. Why is it then that we don’t place the same emphasis on our time and culture? Why do we elevate the predictably temporal and place those who will be defining markers of our culture to future generations far from the center of public awareness and support. Consider which of these names you would consider most influential: Lois Capps or Jim Wimmer Marty Bloom or Jeff Peterson If you chose the first of each pair, I suggest that history will prove you wrong.
Our prioritization is like an hourglass that turns upside down as soon as the current time
expires. Can we learn from history? Can we learn that music defines our culture as strongly as any other societal aspect and more so than most. Can we learn that We lament in the quality of the music being consumed in our culture, particularly by our young citizens, and yet we ignore the process of culturing them to make better choices. Despite the erratic and often intentionally neglected music education experiences in our nation’s schools our country maintains a 130 billion dollar annual music industry. An investment of this size will leave a legacy, the question is of what character? The reason for this outpouring of musical activity, whatever its quality is that music has
always expressed that which could not be expressed in any other way. It elevates our
literary efforts to a higher plane. It picks up where our linguistic capacities leave off. It
has often been observed that if we could effectively describe the effect of music on our
condition that the music would not be necessary. We know full well, however, that we The historical legacy of education has taught us this and we should be listening. The ancient academies in the early days of the formation of our modern society defined the core of the educational experience as the seven liberal arts divided into two parts. One section called the Trivium, not for being trivial but rather for being of three parts consisted of Grammar, Logic and Rhetoric. These disciplines teach us how to communicate. The second section called the quadrivium, or four parts, is made up of Arithmetic, Geometry, Music and Astronomy. These teach those things that are worth communicating. They are the core of the curriculum. They are what define our humanity. They should still be the core of the curriculum. We have crudely reduced these to the three (trivium like) R’s of reading writing and arithmetic. But any serious educator should know that you cannot responsibly cut out the forth “R’ of the quadrivium, “arts” or music any more than you can responsibly cut out the fifth ‘R” of Research (or science as originally represented by Astronomy). I have always believed that music speaks for itself and ultimately needs little help from other concerns to justify its equal place at the center of the curriculum. It is the very soul of what we aspire to be. However, the more we know about the effect of music in the mix with other curricular aspects, the more compelling the secondary arguments become. We now know a great deal about how the brain works, and that music has a significant positive developmental impact on the brain that is unique and profound. We also know that music education has significant results in the achievement and behavior of students in the public schools. Consider these findings from a Stanford University and Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching study in an, Americans for the Arts Monograph, from November 1998 Students involved in arts in the curriculum are: • Four times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement Young artists, as compared with their peers, are likely to: • Attend music, art, and dance classes nearly three times as frequently As a matter of fact, we have four young people from Goleta Valley Junior High School with us today (one of whom is a recent alumna) who are at this very moment participating in a youth group activity (a string quartet), performing a community service (playing their music in a public forum on music education), and who likely demonstrate all the other characteristics found in the Stanford-Carnegie study. Camille Miller, first violin, Sofiya Pryhitko, second violin, Ray Cothern, third violin
(viola part) and Rebecca Shasberger, cello. Camille and Ray are eighth graders, Rebecca is in ninth grade, and Sofiya is a seventh grader. All study privately in addition to the work in school. Their teacher there is Jeff Peterson, I believe you have heard of him, perhaps just a few moments ago! He is the principal educator in the Santa Barbara Thank you. I firmly believe that we could stop here. Case closed. But, wait there’s more. Not only did Mr. Peterson prepare these students to entertain and delight, he has also prepared them to learn. Learn, that is in an enhanced fashion, virtually every other subject in the curriculum. As cited by Daniel Levitin in his book “This is your mind on music,” "Studies of violin players by Thomas Elbert have shown that the region of the brain responsible for moving the left hand – the hand that requires the most precision in violin playing – increases in size as a result of practice.” Listen to this abstract of a study on the Enhanced learning of proportional math through
music training and spatial-temporal training by Amy B. Graziano, Matthew Peterson and
Gordon L. Shaw from the Department of Physics and Center for the Neurobiology of
Learning and Memory, University of California, Irvine, Calif., Department of Vision
Science, University of California, Berkeley, Calif. and the Music Intelligence Neural “It was predicted, based on a mathematical model of the cortex, that early music training Yes, better math through music. Consider science, as examined by James R. Ponter, whose article appearing in the February, 1999 issue of the NASSP (National Association of Secondary School Principals) Bulletin reports: “Nations whose students consistently outperform the United States in tests assessing science achievement are the countries where music is a primary focus of the curriculum. Test results cited in the 1983 report A Nation at Risk showed the United States trailing badly behind other countries in mathematics and science. A 1988 test of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IAEEA) ranked the United States fourteenth among 17 countries on an instrument testing science achievement of eighth and ninth graders (AAAS, 1989). Our students’ scores compared favorably with those of Thailand and Singapore, while trailing far behind Poland, Italy, Korea, English-speaking Canada, and every other participating country, with the exception of the Philippines and Hong Kong.” What are these other countries doing? If we examine the top three ranked countries on the 1998 test, we see some fascinating parallels between academic achievement and music education. In a 1988 study cited by Frank Hodsoll, Chairman of the National Endowment of the Arts, he noted that in grades one through six: “the Japanese require two class periods per week [of music]. Music includes singing, instrumental performance and appreciation of both western and Japanese music. At middle level, students learn to sing in choruses and play instruments in ensembles (DOE 1987).” In Hungary, the land of Bela Bartok and Franz Liszt, with its number one ranking in
science achievement for eighth and ninth graders, music education has long been an
essential and developmental music programs were implemented nationally by the
composer Zoltan Kodaly. Both voice and instrumental training twice a week are The centrality of music education to learning in the top-ranked countries seems to contradict the United States’ focus on math, science, vocabulary, and technology. How is this possible? It is possible, or rather inevitable when we consider how the brain functions. According to Howard Gardner, a leading researcher in education: “musicians follow a progression of notes, a very sequential left brain process; seeing patterns in the Or, in other words, music is a total brain workout that both builds the capacities of logical and creative thinking and that uniquely builds bridges between the two. Hence we create scientists that are more likely to discover something new as well as artists who think and act logically. But, does music make you smarter? “The mental flexibility that is developed by the study of music is reflected in industrial applications. One of the most innovative and entrepreneurial centers of U.S. commerce is the Silicon Valley of California. Grant Venerable, in “The Paradox of the Silicon Savior,” says: “One of the most striking facts in Silicon Valley industry is that the very best engineers and technical designers are, nearly without exception, practicing musicians” (1989). Physician and biologist Lewis Thomas studied the undergraduate majors of medical school applicants. He found that 66 percent of music majors who applied to medical school were admitted. This was the highest of any group, while only 44 percent of the biochemistry majors were admitted (1994). The research emerging from the cognitive sciences gives us useful information to explain the connections between music and learning. Technology allowing us to see the human brain in the process of thinking shows us that when people listen to melodies with a variety of pitch and timbre, the right hemisphere is activated, as it is when one plays by ear or improvises. “When music is read, the player must understand key signatures, notation, and other details of scores and follow the linear sequence of notes activating the left hemisphere in the same area that is involved in analytical and mathematical thinking (Dickinson, 1993). “ This mental multi-tasking seems to enhance cognitive ability in powerful ways that we must not ignore. Further the College Board, the entity that runs the SAT testing for our country’s college bound students consistently reports a 10 percent advantage in both verbal and math testing results for students who have been involved in music for four or more years. Ten percent may not seem like a lot, but it can easily be the difference in a college admission decision, a secondary school meeting minimal academic achievement standards, the grade of an A or B, or my ability to pay my property taxes, which equate to 10 percent of my income and go largely to fund a public education system that is increasingly diminishing the music education that provided me with the capacity earn the income that supports it. It seems like a cycle for societal destruction if not reversed. But some would say that our schools today are struggling with such a wide range of socio economic levels and social forces. Clearly we cannot afford the luxury of music that will only serve a talented few. Again, research says that this argument is completely wrong headed. Arts involvement has a positive impact on students of all socio-economic Levels as reported in a study from the UCLA Graduate School of Education. These statistics, first released in 1997, are based on a study of over 25,000 students that were tracked for several years. The authors of the study incorporated data from students of all ethnic and economic backgrounds so the study would not be biased by those factors. The study also looked at students of low socio-economic status both as part of the entire student population and separately, to see if arts education had a significant impact upon students of low socio-economic status. Here are the results: “SES” refers to socio-economic status. All Students High Arts 72.5 percent All Students Low Arts 45.0 percent Low SES High Arts 41.4 percent Low SES Low Arts 24.9 percent Other areas of measurement showed similar patters of achievement. Is improving the standardized test scores of low socio economic students by 17 percent (or all students by 27 percent) a desired goal? If so, then this study suggests a thorough arts curriculum as the way to accomplish it. Building upon the pioneering work of Dr. Frances Rauscher, psychologist at the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh, a recent study at the University of Munster in Germany revealed that practicing the piano in early childhood expands the mind, literally altering the anatomy of the brain. According to Dr. Rauscher, musical training, specifically piano instruction appears to dramatically enhance a child’s abstract thinking skills and spatial-temporal ability, skills necessary for mathematics and science, even more than computer instruction does. Those children who received piano/keyboard training performed 34 percent higher on tests measuring spatial-temporal ability than the others. The combination of these scientific findings, plus ongoing research into the field, continues to point to one conclusion: music has an obvious impact on the brain and should be supported and encouraged in early childhood education. A report from New York reveals that the schools who produced the highest academic
achievement in the United States today are spending 20 to 30 percent of the day on the
arts, with special emphasis on music. Included are St. Augustine Bronx elementary
school, which, as it was about to fail in 1984, implemented an intensive music program. “In 1984, as desperate families left the crime-ridden SouthBronx, the Archdiocese of New York was on the verge of closing the school because ofdeclining enrollment. The Rev. Robert Jeffers, pastor of St. Augustine's parish, and Mr.Pilecki, a professional pianist who then ran a successful after-school arts program, won Archdiocesan support when they came up with the idea of turning St. Augustine into a school for the arts. Since then, enrollment has more than doubled, test scores have soared, and there is a waiting list for admission. Almost 90 percent of the school's graduates go on to college. Creativity From Chaos.” In the January 1997 article, “The Musical Mind”, Howard Gardner was quoted as saying
that music might be a special intelligence which should be viewed differently from other
intelligences. He stated that musical intelligence probably carries more emotional,
spiritual and cultural weight than the other intelligences. But perhaps most important,
Gardner says, is that music helps some people organize the way they think and work by Students of the arts continue to outperform their non-arts peers on the SAT, according to reports by the College Entrance Examination Board. In 2005, SAT takers with
coursework/experience in music performance scored 56 points higher on the verbal
portion of the test and 39 points higher on the math portion than students with no Well, the studies speak volumes, literally. But it also gets personal.
This past summer one of our Westmont students was driving home after our season
ending orchestra tour. He suffered a near fatal car accident and lay in a coma for
several weeks in intensive care. Doctors told the family that there was little hope of his
recovery. When Dr. Ficsor arrived at the clinic the student was going through some tests that determined he could not recognize or name simple objects such as a spoon. And then Dr. Ficsor took out his violin and put it in the student’s hand. Perplexed the student was unable to name the instrument and said he did not know what to do with it. Dr. Ficsor put the bow in his other hand and encouraged him to try. Moments later he was playing music from memory that he had studied a few months earlier. Two months later he was back in school playing drums in the Chapel Band and violin in the orchestra, taking a full academic load. Music had played what might be called a miraculous role in a recovery that was beyond the doctor’s wildest imaginations. Except that it was not miraculous. It was in fact planned from the very first time that this young man began his violin studies at the age of six. It is how the brain was meant to function, and most likely only could function because the musical resources of both brain hemispheres were so strongly developed and cross linked that they could pull together when linguistic skills, which operate in only one lobe, could not. Was his high school orchestra or his parent’s investment in musical studies justified? So, the research speaks clearly, the stories are legion and the evidence is overwhelming. How are we, that is the community of Santa Barbara, reacting? The recent shocking revelations of fiscal confusion within the SB School district has
revealed a system that cannot determine if it has a five million shortfall or a 2.5 million
surplus (note that is a 7.5 million spread) and whose CFO resigned from a $125,000 a
year position only to be replaced by a $1,000 a day temporary service, (the difference of
which alone would pay for two full time music teachers a year). Drastic reductions to We must start somewhere to address these misguided approaches to education. We should start at restoring the minimal offerings that we have historically had. This can be done simply by reducing the increase in classified (that is non-teaching) personnel costs by 80 percent. If there are other, more practical prioritizations, I would welcome the suggestions. The current scenario for music education in Santa Barbara is a design whose only logical intent can be to gradually eliminate music from the instructional day. Elementary music education has been most significantly reduced. All the studies cited here and in the literature show that the younger the student the more profound and lasting the effect of the encounter with music. Further, students who have no base of instruction are far less likely to elect music in the middle and high school years than those who have had
sequential and developmental opportunities in the elementary years. A report by John
Langstaff and Elizabeth Mayer in the journal Learning, March/April 1996, presented a rationale for the importance of music education in early childhood. Noting that “by While course offerings have been preserved to some extent in the middle schools,
student’s access to them has been greatly curtailed by the elimination of class periods and the resultant limited access to electives. It almost appears as if the administration of the Santa Barbara School District is planning on the destruction of music offerings while
keeping up a good front that can be used to point to earnest attempts at keeping it alive. Misleading financial presentations and inadequate partial gestures will not do. Music instruction must be comprehensive, systematic, accessible to all, integral to the curriculum, sequential (beginning in the lower elementary grades), and not just available but required in the same fashion and with same commitment as other core subjects. The cultural imperative is obvious, the research is clear. To ignore it is simply unacceptable and irresponsible. In the words of David Holmes – Theatre Arts instructor at San Marcos High School: “I believe that we are at a crossroads for the arts in public education. I believe that your efforts to advocate for the arts in your school is critical. The thing I fear most is complacency. This problem will not go away. But if you are complacent and accept that the meager offerings that are available this year is the best that this community can offer, the days of excellence in band, theatre, vocal music and dance are over. You will have contributed to the trend that accepts the mediocre as OK. We need to fight the trend and insist on excellence in our schools and from our students. Performing Arts Education is not the performance at the end of the day. Education is more than an activity. Be involved. Help create a vision for the arts in public education. Start right now in your school by making sure that your principal knows that the Arts are important to you and must be included at your school. It is not OK that in some schools band only meets a few days a week. It is not OK that vocal music is a club activity only. It is not OK that theatre arts in a trimester wheel delivers only 1/3 of the curriculum. It is not OK that a beginning band does not exist at your school. It is not OK that a performance of a play is the only theatre arts in your school. It is not OK that Jazz Band does not exist at your school. It is not OK for only one junior high in the district to have an orchestra. It is not OK that dance is not available at your school. It is not OK that vocal music is not offered at your school. Don't be OK with any of this. Your acceptance of mediocrity is not OK. Make an appointment to meet with your principal. Put this on the agenda of the PTSA. Write letters, send emails, make phone calls. Be an Advocate for the Arts in Public Education.” Here is what I suggest. I suggest that members of the Santa Barbara community, that is most of us here, simply insist to the local school authorities, both those we pay and those we elect, that music education be a component of the core educational experience for every student at every level in the Santa Barbara School district. That every student has unrestricted access to developmentally appropriate music experiences at least 30 minutes a day, three times a week in elementary school, with an additional option for at least weekly semi-private lesson and twice weekly ensemble experiences. This would equate to a daily musical experience for every child similar to what we expect for every other core discipline. That every student in the middle, junior and senior high school environment have unfettered access to at least one music elective, that is to say one period where little else is offered or every conflicting option is offered in an alternate period so that access to the full curriculum is allowed. We insist on this for other critical aspects of the curriculum, we should do the same for music. Decide budget priorities after this is accomplished. Cut administrative salaries, allow PTA’s to fund custodial services, hire grant writers, start a foundation, hold bake sales to fund extra curricular competitive sports, etc., but start here.* *Footnote: Following active community advocacy the Santa Barbara School Board acted to reinstate several aspects of the fine arts curriculum for the 2007 – 2008 school year. On November 4, 2008 the voters of Santa Barbara passed a $35 parcel tax (proposition H) to fund certain math, music and theatre programs that were threatened by budget reductions in the public schools. Bibliography: "Living the Arts through Language + Learning: A Report on Community-based Youth “This Is Your Brain On Music”, Daniel Levitin, Penguin Group, New York, 2006 “An Intelligence View of Music Education”, Dr. Arthur Harvey Music Educators National Conference Website
Definitions Linguistic Logical-Mathematical A study in Rhode Island published in the May 23, 1996 issue of Nature reported that
first-graders who participated in special music classes as part of an arts study saw their
reading skills and math proficiency increase dramatically. Students who studied music
appreciation scored 46 points higher on the math portion of the SAT in 1995, and 39
points higher if they had music performance experiences, than those without music Spatial Bodily-Kinesthetic Musical Interpersonal Intrapersonal Research on the relationship of music and other academic areas conducted in Pawtucket RI and reported in a 1996 volume of the journal Nautre describes “a growing body of evidence that arts instruction can significantly strengthen students’ academic performance. The latest research, involving first and second graders at two Pawtucket RI public elementary schools, produced strong evidence that sequential, skill building instruction in arts and music, integrated with the rest of the curriculum, can greatly improve children’s performance in reading and math. The study was a collaborative effort of The Music School (in Providence RI), arts specialists in the Pawtucket school system, and the Kodaly Center of America. In its first year, the study included 96 students, ages 5-7 in eight first-grade classrooms. Four “test arts” classrooms (two each in two schools) participated in a music and visual art program that emphasized sequential skill development and that integrated music and visual art with the rest of the curriculum. Students in the “test arts” classrooms received one hour of music and one hour of visual art per week. Four control classrooms (two in each school) received the school system’s standard visual arts and musical training (one hour of visual arts and 45 minutes of music in alternating weeks). After seven months, all students were given standardized first-grade Metropolitan Achievement Tests. Martin Gardiner, research director at The Music School, compared the results with kindergarten achievement test scores for the 83 percent of students for whom kindergarten scores were available. He found that, although students in the test arts classes had started behind the control students in percentage of students at or above the national average kindergarten Metropolitan Achievement Test scores, they had caught up to statistical equality in reading, and had pulled ahead in mathematics. Seventy-seven percent of those in the “test arts” classes were now at grade level or above in mathematics, as compared to 55 percent of those in the control groups. The study was continued the following year in four “test arts” and five control classrooms in second grade at the same schools. Achievement tests were again given after seven months. As in the first year, test and control groups were equal on reading, and “test arts” pupils were ahead on math. The percentage of students at or above grade level in second grade math was highest in those with two years of the “test arts” program, lower in those with one year, and lowest in those who no “test arts” participation.” Michael Shasberger joined the Westmont faculty in 2005 after a distinguished career in higher education and church music. A graduate of St. Olaf College in Minnesota, he earned a doctorate in choral music, vocal performance and church music at the University of Southern California. He has extensive experience as a conductor and soloist in a wide variety of musical performances, including opera and classic works. He may be contacted at: shasberger@westmont.edu
|
|||
|
Return
to top of this page Return to WA-ACDA homepage |
The question of music education is a part of a complex mix of priorities in our public
education system. Our discussion today will be about those priorities. Priorities that is,
not put-downs. There are many choices to be made in examining what should be included in the contemporary curriculum, what society can afford to support and what must be left out given the competitive demand on resources.
y that my professional life includes six years in public school teaching, nearly 20 years in preparing others to do so, and 11 in parenting children in the system.