Abby Richter
What stimulates children’s minds? What teaches them discipline? What is it that gives them a sense of pride and accomplishment? It’s a simple answer—music and art. Not only does music and art help with educational purposes, but it also helps children in their adulthood, career and emotional well being. Why is it then that the state of Nebraska is making their education cuts towards music and art? It’s because music and art are not a part of the governments standardized testing like reading, math and writing are. This resorts to schools in Nebraska being pressured to make their first budget cuts at music and art education.
The government of Nebraska should look at cutting other things in our state budget before we go taking art and music out of children’s lives. Republican Governor Dave Heineman said in his State of the State address that one of his biggest priorities is strengthening our education system. But, by taking away art and music, is our education system really going to be strengthened?
According to ‘Champions of Change, the Impact of the Arts on Learning,’ (the most comprehensive study done of students involvement in the fine arts and how it relates to academic success) students who are not involved in fine arts have more than double the chance of dropping out of high school by the 10th grade. From this research one can conclude that taking away art and music education in not strengthening our education system, but hurting it. As Martin Rayala, art, media and design consultant for the Department of Public Instruction at Wisconsin, said, "There are seven ways to communicate information, and words and numbers are only two of them. The other five are movement, sounds, images, objects, and spaces, all of which are provided through the arts.”
Are we actually going to save money by cutting art and music out of our education systems? Studies show that schools that cut these programs actually end up spending more money because without art and music there is a decrease in morale and attendance and an increase in vandalism and disruptions. Therefore, this ends up in hiring more staff for discipline reasons and paying for vandalism damages.
What the state of Nebraska needs to be doing is looking at what else we can do for budget cuts before resorting to cutting music and art our of our education system. Why don’t we have all employees take a two week unpaid vacation at their convenience to balance our budget? Or maybe we should cut 3% from everybody’s budget. That small amount could add up to a lot.
As the Nebraska Coalition for Music Education states, “Besides the obvious pleasure music adds to our lives, recent research shows participation in music study uniquely enhances abstract reasoning and problem solving skills. Music education aids development of reading and language skills as it promotes higher self-esteem and improves psychomotor skills and athletic ability.”
Without art and music education our society is going to lose its creativeness. Pianist Van Cliburn States, “"Music helps improve discipline and concentration, and it develops a sense of spiritual consciousness." Now try to imagine a world without that.
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Resources
Eric , Hines. "Art and Music Department Budget Cuts, What it Means for Your Child and
What You Can Do as a Parent." Articlesbase. 22 Apr 2008. Articlesbase, Web. 10 Feb 2010.
Kyle, Michaelis . "Dave Heineman: No Ideas, No Vision, No Problems." New Nebraska
Network. 19 Jan 2010. New Nebraska Network, Web. 10 Feb 2010.
"Nebraska Coalition for Music Education." Nebraska Music Educators Association.
Nebraska Music Educators Association, Web. 10 Feb 2010.
Ryan, Hurley. "Cuts in Arts Programs Leave Sour Note in Schools." Wisconsin Education
Association Council. 2004. WEAC, Web. 10 Feb 2010.
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Claims
Policy Claim- The government of Nebraska should look at cutting other things in our state budget before we go taking art and music out of children’s lives.
Factual Claims- -Republican Governor Dave Heineman said in his State of the State
address that one of his biggest priorities is strengthening our education system.
-According to ‘Champions of Change, the Impact of the Arts on Learning,’ (the most comprehensive study done of students involvement in the fine arts and how it relates to academic success) students who are not involved in fine arts have more than double the chance of dropping out of high school by the 10th grade.
- As the Nebraska Coalition for Music Education states, “Besides the obvious pleasure music adds to our lives, recent research shows participation in music study uniquely enhances abstract reasoning and problem solving skills. Music education aids development of reading and language skills as it promotes higher self-esteem and improves psychomotor skills and athletic ability.”
3. Value Claim- From this research one can conclude that taking away art and music education in not strengthening our education system, but hurting it.
4. Definitional Claim- "There are seven ways to communicate information, and words and numbers are only two of them. The other five are movement, sounds, images, objects, and spaces, all of which are provided through the arts.”
5. Casual Claims- -Therefore, this ends up in hiring more staff for discipline reasons and
paying for vandalism damages.
- Without art and music education our society is going to lose its creativeness.
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