Advocacy for Music Education


"Without music, life is a journey through a desert."
- Pat Conroy, U.S. author

Music is everywhere. When walking down the street it can be heard wafting from stores and restaurants. It is found in movies, symphony halls, airplanes, elevators, the list continues! Music surrounds us and influences us everyday. It makes aware of the broad spectrum of human emotions from pure delight to agony and anguish.

Now I invite you to picture a world without music. A world so troubled, a world lacking freedom of expression through musical talent. There would be no symphonies to attend, no music in the park on a summer's night, and no sound of young voices being lifted in song. This is a world without music education. Music education is the basis from which comes musicians, composers, and well-rounded people of society. If music education is taken out of the schools it would greatly impact students and future generations. Eventually there would be no music.

Every child deserves an education and every child should at one time be given the opportunity to participate in a music program. The goal is not to have every child become a prodigy, but to help them cultivate a strong appreciation of music from all cultures, genres, and walks of life. Music belongs in schools.

The following websites describe in depth the necessity for music education:

Quotes pertaining to music advocacy that I strongly agree with:

"The term ‘core academic subjects’ means English, reading or language arts, mathematics, science, foreign languages, civics and government, economics, arts, history, and geography.”
– No Child Left Behind Act of 2002, Title IX, Part A, Sec. 9101 (11)

"Music is exciting. It is thrilling to be sitting in a group of musicians playing (more or less) the same piece of music. You are part of a great, powerful, vibrant entity. And nothing beats the feeling you get when you've practiced a difficult section over and over and finally get it right (yes even on the wood block). Music is important. It says things your heart can't say any other way, and in a language everyone speaks. Music crosses borders, turns smiles into frowns, and vice versa. These observations are shared with a hope: that, when schools cut back on music classes, they really think about what they're doing - and don't take music for granted."
-Dan Rather, CBS Anchorman

"Understanding and acknowledging the incredible economic impact of the nonprofit arts, we must always remember the fundamental value of the arts. They foster beauty, creativity, originality, and vitality. The arts inspire us, soothe us, provoke us, involve us, and connect us... but they also create jobs and contribute to the economy."
-Robert L. Lynch, President and CEO of Americans for the Arts