[tag]Music[/tag] should be a part of every person’s education.  It certainly is part of every person’s life experience. 

As you know, I am an [tag]advocate[/tag] music and [tag]music education[/tag].  Many [tag]academics[/tag] believe that music is not a “real” subject and that music is only an extracurricular activity.  Many administrators say that music costs to much money to implement and that budget cuts are forcing them to support only ”real” subjects.  All to which I say: Balderdash!

There has been so much [tag]research[/tag] linking the [tag]fine arts[/tag] to increased personal productivity, increased intelligence, self-worth and a healthy sense of “being” that any one who states that music is a “frill” is obviously an ignoramus.

Here’s one of my favorite retorts to “politely send” to those who deem the arts as not a core subject:

“The term ‘core academic subjects’ means English, reading or language arts, mathematics, science, foreign languages, civics and government, economics, arts, history, and geography.” — [tag]No Child Left Behind Act[/tag] of 2002, Title IX, Part A, Sec. 9101 (11)

And another I “politely send” to colleagues who magnify their academic subjects (in relation to music and arts with their’s being a higher priority…) as being able to increase their students abstract reasoning skills (a major component for learning math and science):

A research team exploring the link between music and intelligence reported that music training is far superior to computer instruction in dramatically enhancing children’s abstract reasoning skills, the skills necessary for learning math and science. — Shaw, Rauscher, Levine, Wright, Dennis and Newcomb, “Music training causes long-term enhancement of preschool children’s spatial-temporal reasoning,” Neurological Research, Vol. 19, February 1997

Music teacher’s facing increasing pressures, from your administrators, everywhere about your discipline, TAKE NOTE!  Much of our (collectively) academic research about music advocacy has been coordinated into an easy to access online database! 

NAMM, MENC and a host of other organizations have begun a ”national effort” to help us educate others about the significance of music.  Music is not simply important because of all the incredible ”by products” it produces (like better scores in other classes) but simply because it is significant on it’s own!

If you, as a teacher, musician or [tag]music advocate[/tag] want help with advocacy, or simply are wanting detailed and peer-reviewed backing for your program or edification, the supportmusic.com website will prove an invaluable resource for you.

Listed below are some of the major topics the supportmusic.com website focuses on:

• Budget Issues
• Time Issues
• Facilities Issues
• Mandates Issues
• [tag]Intelligence Factors[/tag]
• Inherent Values
• Social Values
• [tag]Students with disabilities[/tag].

A whole host of great Music Advocacy information is only a click away.  Bookmark http://supportmusic.com today!

                                   ~J. Pisano

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