The Decline of Music Education - Research Paper Example

Draft Effects of Corporate Restructuring Number: Introduction 2. Application of the method source 3. Examination ofprevious attempts to address the problem and their successes and failures. 4. The description of a proposed game 5. A concluding section (as we discussed in class there are a lot of possible things that you could do with a conclusion; one tactic might be to address potential problems with your ARG but insist on its benefits; another might be to extrapolate trends (what will likely happen to your problem area without further intervention and/or with it?  But your goal here is to end on a thought-provoking note). The Decline of Music Education Music has been rarely been considered as a key part of the curriculum in most countries including USA. However, in there has been a drastic decline of music education in USA to extents that are raising an alarm and calling for an immediate intervention or else some other talented young men and women may fail to get an opportunity to establish themselves in this industry. Currently, various studies have proven that music education in the institutions of learning has already lost the limited status it used to enjoy a few years ago. Music education is not been fully provided with the resources it requires not only in USA, but also in most other parts of the world. In case of an economic crisis, music, and related arts studies are the ones that are prioritized in been eliminated from the curriculum of most studies. Most states are no longer acknowledging the role that music plays in development of active citizens in any given states. This research paper is going to dig out the issue of decline of music education in most parts of the world with much emphasis being laid on USA. 1. Proving that there is a problem The sharp decline of music education in the American education system is a serious threat to the arts industry. The country is known to be among the top countries that produce incredible musicians, artists, movies stars among other professionals whose field is related to the music industry. Teachers, parents, society, federal government, and the country at large has over time been losing the value they had attached to the music education. However, the problem appears to dominate mostly in the public schools since leading private schools seem to still value the need for arts particularly music education. This decline is completely inconsistent with the current youth cultures whereby music is being perceived as a formal source of income not only in USA but also other parts of the world. Music is for most youths an essential way in which they can express social identity and have a sense of belonging. If the decline of music education in USA would continue to a trend in the coming years with no measures being put in place in order to curb the problem, USA is likely to lose a major source of employment. Statistics show that over …………………. People rely on music as their source of income with another ,,,,,,,,,,,,,, being employed by the music industry indirectly. Moreover, the continuous decline of music education is likely to lead to a sharp decrease in the number of musicians whose origin is USA. This would be a serious problem to the establishment of the country’s brand that seems to dominate in the arts industry and particularly in the music industry. USA has been producing international musicians, a fact that is accorded by various studies. According to the carried out studies, music has been a major marketing tool of USA tourism as well as the development of the country’s brand. Among the popular studies that have been conducted in order to establish the extent of decline in music education is the popular 2004 research study that was entitled “The Sounds of Silence”. The study was carried out in California public school by the Music for All Foundation that established that there was about 50 percent continuous decline in the number of students enrolling for music programs in the year 2003-2004 compared to year 1999-2000. Findings on this study were used to make a general conclusion by the study which to translated to a decrease of more than half a million students, a decline that educationist termed as one of the highest decline ever experienced in the American education system. The most shocking element about this statistics is the fact that the decline in number of students enrolling for music education was occurring at a time when California public schools student population was increasing at a rate of about 5.8 percent. The study also reported a sharp decrease in the number of music teachers by 1,057 in the same period compared to that of 1999-2000, which translated for a 26.7 percent decrease. A similar study to establish the sharp decrease in the music education carried out in San Diego County public schools that reported a drastic decline of students taking music education by approximately a third in a period of four years. This study however went ahead and stated that music’s mortality rate at the national level was outrageous and confirmed the findings that had been proposed by the “The Sounds of Silence” study that there was a decrease in number of students enrolling for music education by about 50 percent. According to the analysis that was done by the National Endowment for the Arts on the federal data in the year 2009, there has been a continuous decrease in the number of students enrolling for arts courses and in particular music education. The study reported that the decrease was most common among the students of African-American and Hispanic origins. Moreover, the broader look at the problem showed that the number of adults aged 18 years and above who had went through music classes by the year 2008 was by far much lower compared to those who had been survived in 1982. The study reported a dropping of about 65 percent to the 2008 50 percent of adults who reported in the survey to have ever taken arts courses in their childhood. The study also included survey data that had been collected in 1992 and 2002 with the figure drastically reducing in each successive time. 1. Causes Analysis of the underlying causes of the problem Carried out studies have associated the sharp decline in music education with a number of factors. However, budget crisis, pressure to increase test scores and the No Child Behind Act appears to be the main factors that many studies have laid their finger at. The issue of budget crisis as the main root cause leading to decline in music education in the public schools has been echoed by several studies including that of the ‘Sounds of Silence’ whose report showed that there was a serious crisis in the budget that led to the cutting of costs in the education sector. State government as well as other stakeholders has to effectively allocated the necessary resources to the education sector in order to give teachers and students an enabling environment with the necessary resources in this context being time and money. Many music programs in the country especially at the elementary level started declining since the passing of the Proposition 13 in 1979. Budget constraints in California among other states led to the elimination of the position of Fine Arts Coordinator in most of the schools a factor that led to the decrease in value that had been put on arts education. Removal of this position meant that there existed no body to keep music on the table during the discussion of budget crisis at the district/administrative level. Some other recent studies have put part of the blame on the current economic recession that the country is currently facing. federal government has in the past few years been sharply shrinking the money it allocates to education at all levels particularly at the elementary level which has ended up making most schools to cut costs or running their education programs one of them being to target the arts education precisely music education. Current economic crisis are a major threat to the arts education in USA, a problem that was also noted by a report published in the New York Times entitled the ‘Draconian Budget’. Implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act is another factor that has been associated with the decline in music education in most public schools particularly at elementary level. The act was emphasizing on the strategies that can be implemented in order to promote effective learning of the limited areas of reading with respect being math and sciences. Its implementation automatically led to the decline in support being given to other education programs particularly music and other arts programs. Arts education should be given the attention and support it deserves just like any other education since it is a major employer in the country, contributed a lot to the national GDP as well as helps a lot in building the country’s brand name as US musicians are popular globally. Music education is in no way inferior than science or math education thus swift measures have to be implemented in order to restore its value as it was a few decades ago. References Read More