Part 2: Update on Lack of Resources in Music Program

Part 2: Update on Lack of Resources in Music Program

Today I returned to the school which served as an impetus for my M.S. Education thesis and for my blog entry “Lack of Resources and Opportunities in Low Socioeconomic Schools”. On Tuesday, the company I work for sent someone to fix the guitars and ordered some keyboards as the ones they presently have are broken. Tomorrow, they will be getting a new full-time music teacher. I will be there as well.

I brought my guitar tuner and tuned one of the acoustic guitars. One student played “Seven Nation Army” on an electric guitar. Another student played “Fur Elise” by Beethoven on their one working keyboard. Yet another student attempted to play “Chop Suey” by System of a Down on drums. This is not an easy song to play and the guitar set they have at this school is inadequate to play this song, but she gave it a solid effort. She’s not quite ready for this song, though. She needs to play faster and her rhythm needs to catch up to her speed, but with practice, she will get there. This is precisely why we need adequate music education in schools.

In this case, I spoke up for these students and got them the resources they needed to have a functional music program. Other students at other schools are not so lucky. The arts are always the first programs to have their funding cut and without programs like the one that I work for, those schools suffer without the benefit of a proper music program. The administrators in charge of the budget do not understand the importance of continuing to fund arts programs. These arts programs can boost the test scores they are so worried about, improve grades, increase mathematics comprehension, raise self-confidence and lift student morale.

I honestly never thought that I would be teaching music, let alone advocating for music programs in schools. I was encouraged to study something other than music and get a “real job”. I tried to do all that. I have two master’s degrees (English and Education). While in college, I took Calculus while other English majors were taking Algebra. I have taught everything from preschool to college and everything in between. I taught at the university level for 5 ½ years and think I will likely return in the very near future. I have several friends who are musicians as well, many of which were also good at math, science and technology. A few of these friends have degrees in computer science related fields and have good careers in those industries. They are all evidence of the benefit of music on overall education. As much as the mind is a terrible thing to waste, so too is talent.