In this difficult recession, cutbacks are being made in every part of our life. One of the areas where important elements have been reduced or eliminated in is our schools. The first things to be cut out usually are the non-core classes like art, music and PE. These are all important things that young children need in order to be completely stimulated for their minds and their bodies. The problem now happens that only the kids that can afford to take music education or to buy a student violin or an electric violin will be able to experience the many benefits that learning how to play an instrument teaches. Because of this, many groups across the country have formed to try to support the learning of the arts or to try to bring back the extra classes to schools and why it is so important.
Learning how to read music and playing a musical instrument has been shown to help children academically later on. There have been studies to support this and state that kids who are involved in music and learn to play an instrument at a young age, will perform better mathemtically than students that have have not had music lessons or training. This is why it is so imperative to have these taught to all children, not just the ones who can afford private lessons.
One example of a group that is supporting music education in schools is known as AMC which stands for American Music Conference and is a national non-profit group that is intent on teaching the importance of music education. Several well known musicians have supported this specific group like Nick Lachey, Run DMC and a lot of actors and actresses. This group has worked together with Teen people magazine to have a big artist of the year event acknowledging artists in the music industry and brings awareness to the fact that music education in schools in important.
In addition to many different larger groups that are supported by different celebrities, many smaller grassroot advocacy groups have come together trying to support music in schools too. One such group is known as MusicFriends and was started by parents and a little community that wanted to support music in their local school district. They are supported by MENC which is The National Association for Music Education that started in the early 1900′s and promotes the neccessity of music education in schools.
This group advocates that music was mentioned as a core subject in the No child left behind education Act of 2002 and how valuable it is and should not be eliminated from schools attempting to make budget cuts.
Whether it is a big national group or a little group in your community fighting to maintain music in your schools, the same message is being advocated. Music education helps children, particularly the younger ones in elementary school and districts should consider it as vital as reading or math when considering budget cuts.