Music, Education, and Technology

John J. Mahlmann, executive director of the National Association for Music Education, was recently quoted in the Washington Post as saying he is tired of having to defend the importance of music education. He often finds it necessary to rattle off statistics about how music improves the lives of people who study it. The sheer joy of playing and understanding music isn’t enough, he said.

So he has an unorthodox response to educators: “Why is math so high on the priority list?”

His answer: “Because we can test for it.”

The thing people forget, he said, is that musicians are assessed every time they play an instrument. “If you went to a concert and they only played 80 percent of the notes correctly, you wouldn’t like it,” he said. “Musicians strive for perfection. Lots of people don’t mind 80 percent on a math quiz.”

Here are some more “reasons” why music education matters, as collected and presented by Valerie Strauss of the Washington Post.

1. Schools with music programs have graduation rates of 90.2 percent, as compared with a 72.9 percent rate for schools without music education, according to a 2006 Harris Interactive poll of high school principals funded by the National Association for Music Education and International Music Products Association (NAMM). The poll also found that schools with music programs have attendance rates of 93.3 percent, compared with 84.9 percent for those that don’t.

2. In 2006, SAT takers with course work or experience in music performance scored 57 points higher on the verbal portion of the college entrance exam and 43 points higher on the math portion than did students with no such experience in the arts. Scores of those with course work in music appreciation were 62 points higher on the verbal and 41 points higher on the math, according to the College Board’s 2006 Profile of College-Bound Seniors National Report.

3. A November 2007 Harris poll found that 86 percent of college graduates had some music education when they were in school, compared with 65 percent for those who had not completed or completed only high school. Eighty-three percent of people earning $150,000 or more had a music education, the poll found.

For more “reasons,” there are many helpful resources such as musicforall.org, amc-music.com/ and schoolmusicmatters.com.

To me, the sheer joy of music making, for people from 0 to 100+, is reason enough! The rest is gravy!

Steven Van Zandt says rock ‘n’ roll saved his life. Now he wants to return the favor. The E Street Band guitarist and Sopranos star created the non-profit Rock and Roll Forever Foundation last year, as a vehicle to preserve the music that so shaped his life.

On December 2, 2007, he unveil the foundation’s first project: a middle- and high-school curriculum designed to introduce a new generation of teens to the music. The project, being created in partnership with education publisher Scholastic’s InSchool division, is endorsed by the National Association for Music Education (MENC). Scholastic will work to ensure course materials meet national education standards, so it could be used not only in music classes but also for humanities or social studies courses.

The plan is to distribute a 40-chapter curriculum, including teachers’ guide, lesson plans, DVDs, CDs and Web-based resources, free, beginning with the 2008-09 academic year, to the nation’s 30,000 or so middle and high schools. The curriculum will explore the cultural and historic impact of rock, beginning with pioneers such as Little Richard and Elvis Presley, through soul music, early girl groups, the British invasion, the psychedelic period and ending with today’s newer groups.

Van Zandt “is committed to not only making this something that kids will be excited about but also making it something that teachers and administrators can get behind,” says Ann Amstutz Hayes, a Scholastic vice president.

“We’re trying to reach everybody, whether a musician, a rock ‘n’ roll fan or not.” Van Zandt said. “We’re going to make a case that this art form is so interesting that you will be absolutely compelled to listen to it, and maybe even learn how to play it.”