I received the following email:
Hi, Dr. Ravitch:
I am a film teacher at a Buffalo Public School (www.cityhonors.org) and one of my students made a video on her own time about the draconian cuts that the Buffalo Public Schools is making with its instrumental music program. This is a direct effect of the per pupil funding that has been instituted in the BPS. I thought you might like to see it. It is interesting that NYS has billions to pay Pearson, but we can’t keep instrumental music programs in place.
Thanks…
Sincerely,
Melisa Holden
Librarian & IB Film teacher
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I want to retweet this blog post, but the title needs to be corrected. Thank You.
LikeLike
The title is corrected.
LikeLike
I want to retweet this post, but the title needs to be corrected.
Thank You.
LikeLike
Ghsmusic, I fixed the title. Sorry for the error.
LikeLike
Funny typo in the title of this, Diane!
I’m sure you meant “Testing” but the image of “Teating” works just as well in describing how politicians have enabled corporate profiteers to feast on public education funds, while kids go hungry for an enriched education.
LikeLike
Right, Cosmic Tinkerer
LikeLike
I am a STEM guy. Rather, let’s say my education and various careers make me look like a STEM guy. But I study music right next to physics. I play (poorly) the violin. I am training my pitch-poor voice. Music is nurture for the brain and soul.
To cut music programs is absurdly short-sighted. Not only is music brain stimulating, it is a magnificent drop-out prevention program. An ensemble is something you can belong to; something healthy, nurturing and educating to belong to. Concert Band is not a gang. A drum-line is not a gang.
At a football game, would you rather your child be in the bleachers playing the fight-song, or under the bleachers getting high?
Speak out; not just in NY; but everywhere. Spending money on music is a good investment. Spending money on Pearson is…….well………stupid.
LikeLike
And many studies show the similarities between the study of musical notation, and the study of math. The brain is wonderful as our master technology when real educators are allowed to nurture it.
LikeLike
Oy, Ellen, I was just having this very conversation with a former librarian & administrator this evening. It has been proven that music education helps students increase their academic abilities, as well (especially students who play musical instruments and who participate in band and orchestra). Did any of you see the news video (or on Fred or Mike Klonsky’s blogs) with the crying
strings student and parent at the closing Lafayette School in Chicago? It is heartbreaking, and the situation is a national tragedy.
LikeLike
We music teachers know that music engages both brain hemispheres and requires logical and ordered thinking skills. The ability to see, hear, organize, and physically react to patterns is often linked to that undefinable affinity called “talent” with its quality level directly proportional to the complexity of the pattern.
It may be true that a great many of our highest academic achievers study music. However, one must be very careful when using that statistic to make the correlation that studying music has a direct affect on academic achievement.
There is a theory that turns this claim on its side: It is not that music increases academic ability, it is that students with higher academic aptitude have the discipline and tenacity to engage in music performing activities and therefore are attracted to music performance of certain types to higher levels of study. The “music study = high academics” argument discounts the high school dropouts who became forces in popular music culture including one of the most complex forms of popular music: jazz. STEM academic brain processes do not always open the channel to expression if the student’s abilities are situated in the left-brain primarily. Likewise, those who are mostly right-brain thinkers tend to struggle with logical and ordered processes. The arts are important as a balance for the STEM subjects in helping to shape a well-rounded mind. STEM students need to be open to their sense of creativity like those who have designed marvels in architecture and technology (iPad, anyone?).
Some of my strongest student musicians were children who struggled academically in their youth. The moral? All children can benefit from music education. As adults, many students utilize the skills they honed in music study such as the hardware engineer designing the next tech product who learned to work an instrument, the full-time parent juggling schedules while providing the emotional scaffolding for the development of his children who juggled a rehearsal schedule while having the energy to give passionate and sincere performances, the plumber with the trained ear for listening to blockages in pipes and working with the science of physics to provide an efficient system who repaired and maintained her brass instrument time and again, the clothing maker ensuring the value of a good fit with a durable garment who had experience composing for and creating new instruments, the poet transporting us to mental vacation spots who sang some of the richest text in our culture while in choir, the ambassador who is expert in diplomacy who was a section leader in the marching band, etc.
Music is a human activity that helps us develop AS humans. It is not always about the product–the process often results in more valuable learning.
LikeLike
There is a movement among arts educators to change STEM to STEAM – the A standing for Arts, of course.
LikeLike
Love that. Where can I sign up in support?
LikeLike
I just found out that the introductory violin program for 3rd graders at my former school is being scrapped. They will still have 4th grade through 8th grade band/strings. This is a Title I school and this program is so important for these children. I taught 3rd grade and went to the concerts they had. They went from sounding terrible to very good. All the parents were so proud of these kids, and the cafeteria was packed the night of the final concert. This was such a good program. I used contributions from my Jeff’s memorial fund to buy 10 used violins for this program. I am so disappointed.
LikeLike
Music teacher here.
This problem goes back to Sputnik, I think.
LikeLike
Oh, yeah. That was the first shock doctrine hoax played on American school children that many of us can remember. Due to the fear of losing the space race because of the Soviet launch of the Sputnik satellite, funds were supposedly earmarked for promoting science and gifted education in schools, So guess what got cut? In the 50s and 60s, I never attended even one elementary, middle or high school that had a band, orchestra or provided ANY instruction in playing musical instruments.
I was in high school when we landed on the moon, which means my generation had absolutely nothing to do with that accomplishment. And, honestly, there were no gifted programs in the elementary and middle schools I attended, and I don’t recall getting more science. But my generation was denied the opportunity to learn how to play a musical instrument for the cause. At least we had chorus. One small step for man….
LikeLike
Yes, we do have the obligation to teach the whole child and every child! As a musician and the mother of musicians this breaks my heart. Music is what gave me that extra boost I needed to get out of bed every morning from 5-12 grade. I have a Bachelors of Music in Music Education and when I couldn’t find a music job, I went back for a Masters in Elementary Education. Not a day goes where I don’t sing song or make a music reference. Fight like hell Buffalo!
LikeLike
As a music educator in NY state, I have personally felt the impact of the story here. And I am beyond blaming my district’s administration. This problem is in fact bigger than them. It is bigger even than NYSED. Whoever bought into the idea that it was a good idea to spend so much money on testing our students as much as we are now is to blame, along with all of those that they lobbied to get on board. I don’t think those people could have ever been educators in a school. And it’s not only the testing. The monetary dump goes into the scoring of these tests as well. It’s incredibly sad.
LikeLike
My district cut one grade level out of instrumental music three years ago which resulted in both a loss of a position and students who are a year behind their elder counterparts. They are only now hiring a 6/10 music teacher to help resurrect the program, but they still haven’t reinstated the 4th grade program.
LikeLike
Our school district has always begun the instrumental music program in sixth grade.
LikeLike
The grade level can make a difference the further away from age 9 a student is. Closer to that age is obviously better, but the other condition is frequency of instructional meeting. In my district, students have 30-minute group lessons once a week. If they had lessons every day, they could start later than 4th or 5th and have a chance.
LikeLike
My husband was a Buffalo Public School student K-8, and only through the teachers there did he get the opportunity to learn to play music. His family did not have the money to spend on private lessons, the same as many current students. A world of opportunities opened for him, and he has been rewarded with an amazing career. How can today’s students be denied the same opportunity? It is an outrage – unfair and shortsighted.
LikeLike
A must read
http://www.teenink.com/nonfiction/academic/article/466200/Should-Art-and-Music-Education-be-Included-in-School-Education/
LikeLike
This is heartbreaking. My own town has cut art/music and PE for the past few years, in the elementary and jr high grades, and now the high school is suffering for musicians.
LikeLike
I wonder if you know about the International Baccalaureate Curriculum and if you have an opinion about it? It’s being used in some charter schools.
LikeLike
Yes, actually, one of the schools in the system (my school, actually) has the program. It was actually through a class in this program (IB Film) that I was allowed the resources and taught the skills to create this video. Thank you very much for the support! It is very appreciated. I’m glad to get such a great response.
LikeLike
Reblogged this on laartsedforum and commented:
A series of testimonials about offering a “world class” education which includes rich learning experiences in a variety of subjects. A rich education includes academic learning, cultural learning, and social learning. Without cultural and social success, there will not be economic success. For more about what the results of cuts in music and why (by the numbers) music education should be supported read John Benham’s Music Advocacy: Moving from Survival to Vision. I will follow up later with a post on his book. Absolutely worth the time to read.
LikeLike
My son is a brilliant mathematician at the ripe, old age of nine. I have no doubt that this is due to music and piano lessons since the age of four. The sad thing is that the majority of kids do not have this opportunity and the opportunity is being stripped every year that we continue the madness of focusing on one test score at the end of the year. The standardized tests are a breeze for my son but not because testing is being drilled into his head, testing is just a minor annoyance to him because he is actually learning from music and multiple languages, two things that are completely ignored in our schools currently.
LikeLike