Why is music education important?

Answer 1

I am in my third year of Music Education and as such, I believe that it is very important. To be brief: It appeals to every intelligence from the multiple intelligence model of Howard Gardner in one way or another; it appeals to virtually every student one can think of and provides the opportunity for success. Music education is also a group effort, and requires the cooperation and collaboration of every student in order to be successful; try to name another discipline in which everyone involved has to and does feel the same thing at the same time... it's really quite magical. Furthermore, studies have shown that students who are involved in band, choir, etc. perform exceptionally better than students who are not. Lastly (I'm going to end here before this turns into a short essay), some might argue that music education is a waste of time and money, as the students will never use the skills they have in their lives. I don't think that is true, however. Try to name one person who does not listen to music as they get older, and who completely lose their taste for music the older they get. For me my time in music class, band or choir all taught me how to truly listen to music well, and even if I end up not teaching music, I doubt I will ever forget that lesson and use it nearly every day. This is just one lesson I've learned from music, and a significant one at that. Now try to name one person who doesn't use what they learned from math, Biology, chemistry, etc. in high school. I'll bet you can name more than one.