Fighting Poverty through Music

The benefits of music education are numerous and clear.  Yet, programs are often out of reach for many school districts that struggle to muster up funding, especially in areas of poverty.  What if there were a clear-cut solution to providing free music education for every student in underprivileged schools?

There is.

El Sistema, founded in Venezuela in 1975 by Dr. Jose Antonio Abreu, aims to provide social uplift through community music education.  It was enacted in order to keep students occupied, and away from drugs, crime, and gangs, and develop them as scholars and citizens.  According to a New York Times article written by Daniel J. Wakin, El Sistema reaches approximately 310,000 children in 280 locations, and contains roughly 500 musical ensembles.  In doing so, El Sistema successfully presents communities with a clear solution to a widespread social problem.

I grew up outside of Allentown, Pennsylvania in an area that is very supportive of the arts.  Our community is in close proximity to Philadelphia, and has strong professional musical groups, such as the Allentown Symphony Orchestra and the Allentown Band (with deep-rooted connections to John Philip Sousa).  Additionally, high school theater programs are hugely supported through the Freddy Awards program, featured in a documentary entitled "Most Valuable Players" (see the trailer below).



And, Allentown has its very own El Sistema program.  Funded primarily by the Allentown symphony orchestra, El Sistema Lehigh Valley is run by director Steven Liu in Roosevelt Elementary School.  It meets every day at 3:15, after classes end, and supports 85 students.   All students receive instruction on their individual instruments in small groups of 6-8 students.  They also rehearse in both orchestra and choir ensembles and perform five concerts per year for their families and for the community.  And, students from a local university provide tutoring services to these students several times each month.

According to an article by Adam Clark of the Morning Call, Allentown School District elementary schools only receive up to twelve general music classes each school year.  After connecting with one of El Sistema's most famous directors, Gustavo Dudamel, Steven Liu was inspired to bring the program to Allentown.  Liu stated, "We're no longer talking about music for music's sake.  We're talking about [music] for the community and the development of whole individuals, development of citizens."

When the program began, the $150,000 start-up funds granted to Liu by the Allentown Symphony were still not sufficient to provide instruments for the students.  The program pushed on anyways, and the students made their own cardboard instruments until the symphony secured an additional $10,000 and a deal from a local music store for 50% off instruments.  From there, the impacts of the program were enormous for the students, families, and community.

The retention rate of Allentown's program is approximately 83% and the attendance rate is 87%.  Students genuinely enjoy the program and the benefits they receive from participating.  According to the Morning Call article, highly involved students in the program scored extremely well on state standardized tests.  72% scored proficient or advanced in reading, and 81% scored proficient or advanced in math.

The video below was created by director of El Sistema Lehigh Valley and provides testimonies from its students that show how impactful the program really is.


 In Venezuela, the program is well-established.  According to El Sistema's official website, "El sistema is...a set of inspiring ideals which inform an intensive youth music program that seeks to effect social change through the ambitious pursuit of musical excellence."

To accomplish this social change, El Sistema holds several important core vales.  These include the principals of equality and humanity (every human has the right to live a life filled with beauty and dignity), and that every child should be able to learn an instrument or participate in a musical ensemble.  Some other principals are the ability to overcome poverty by "an affluence of the spirit" (as Dr. Abreu said), the gift of love, approval, and joy from teachers to students, and the gift of a nurturing community.

The program's goals include making music accessible to all communities across the globe, and making a good education (in music and in core subjects) accessible to all students, regardless of background.

Each El Sistema location is called a "nucleo."  The nucleo environments are created to be safe locations full of positivity, aspiration, friendship, and creativity within a supportive community.  They are meant to foster hard work and intensity, creating students with strong work ethic and drive while simultaneously impacting and inspiring the community through their musical performances in order to begin to truly enact social change.

STEAM: "Where science ends, art begins."

Think back to high school.  How many times did you take a difficult test and leave thinking, "I am never going to have to know this information in real life, and this class has absolutely nothing to do with my future career.  How is this important?"  I certainly said this countless time when leaving physics, or calculus, or biology.  My career path has absolutely nothing to do with any of these subjects and yet, I had to take them.

Image Courtesy of the US Department of Education

In reality, creating a well-rounded education is extremely valuable to any student who wishes to succeed in higher education, or in their career.  For quite a few years, school districts have been pushing STEM education: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math education.  The goal of this program is to create innovative and critically-thinking students who are able to make connections between all aspects of their lives and who will become lifelong learners.  Additionally, STEM students will be prepared to pursue careers that involve science, technology, engineering, and math, which are fast-growing fields of work that are necessary for the success of our country.

On March 23, 2015 at the White House Science Fair, President Barack Obama stated, "[Science] is more than a school subject, or the periodic table, or the properties of waves.  It is an approach to the world, a critical way to understand and explore and engage with the world, and then have the capacity to change that world."  President Obama went on to articulate that educating students in STEM fields creates students with the potential to help maintain the United State's status as a global leader.  These students will have the capacity to solve the world's most pressing problems.

Image Courtesy of Washington State University

According to the United States Department of Education, "In a world that's becoming increasingly complex, where success is drive not only by what you know, but by what you can do with what you know, it's more important than ever for our youth to be equipped with the knowledge and skills to solve tough problems, gather and evaluate evidence, and make sense of information."  The Department of Education asserts that these valued qualities are best taught through STEM education, and that classes in all STEM fields should be readily available to students.

Photo Courtesy of Envision Science Academy

While science, technology, engineering, and math classes are vital to the success of any student, arts classes should certainly be thrown in the mix.  STEM classes are mostly based on logic and skills used by the left half of the brain.  The United States needs innovative, intelligent citizens to solve our world's problems, and creativity is crucial for innovation.  Historically, our country has been ranked first in innovation globally.  However, we now rank between 3rd and 8th in the world.  To provide a solution for fostering more creativity and for encouraging innovation for students, the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) began a movement to change STEM education to STEAM education--science, technology, engineering, arts, and math.

A statement from RISD affirms, "art and design education teaches flexible thinking, risk-taking and creative problem solving needed to solve today's most complex and pressing challenges--from healthcare to urban revitalization to global warming."  Innovators and creative thinkers are absolutely essential to the future of our nation, and all children should have access to music and art classes to supplement their education in science and math.

According to the STEAM official website, many other nations in Asia and Europe view arts education as "essential" for the success of their economy.  They implement programs that put arts education very high on their priority list.

For example, the organization Creatiquity states that Australia's Curriculum, Assessment, and Reporting Authority (ACARA) designates the arts as five distinct disciplines: visual art, music, dance, theater, and media arts.  In China, music and fine arts classes are required for two hours a week in elementary school.  Germany's government, specifically the Ministries of Education and Family Affairs spends $12.6-$14 million dollars on the arts each year.  As the US continues to decline and fall behind other countries in innovation, we need to seriously consider what needs to be changed.

Quite possibly, the United States will begin to consider changes in its education system that will begin to include the arts as a main discipline, fostering more creativity and innovation, which could pay dividends in the future.

For the Little Prodigies

Mozart wrote his first piece of music when he was five.  Can you imagine?  In a culture that highly valued music and the arts, Mozart and many other budding composers and musicians were able to study music at their leisure and attend regular concerts.  It's unbelievable that live music was practically more accessible to people living in the sixteenth century than in the twenty-first century.  Today, music classes are cut every day, and it is just not as valued in our culture.  Below is a recording of Mozart's very first piece of music--Andante in C Major, K. 1a for harpsichord.



Creativity is certainly still encouraged in today's society.  This is why parents encourage make-believe play and imaginary friends.  It is a well-known fact that, for a child to properly develop and learn, they must develop some form of imagination.  And, the brains of children are set up perfectly for creativity.  Take the Mozart excerpt above, for example.  With nearly no musical training or theory courses, five-year-old Mozart was able to take an idea from his imagination and transfer it into a piece of music--kids are capable of amazing things.

Music classes in elementary school are the perfect vessel for children to express their creativity and enrich their learning experience.  Clapping out rhythms and singing songs is just as important to a child's development as an early math or reading lesson.  With such short attention spans, music helps to give kids a break in the day, but still teaches them counting, reading, and writing.

We have just entered March, which is Music In Our Schools Month. According to the National Association for Music Education, March is the time of year when "music education becomes the focus of schools across the nation."  Teachers are encouraged to plan their lessons to incorporate music education into their curriculum in as many ways as possible, and to make an effort to bring as much music into the school as possible.  From its origin in 1973 to its first "World's Largest Concert" in 1985, to the present-day worldwide event, Music In Our Schools Month has reached over 6 million students and only continues to grow.

Despite all the budget cuts and the threats to music programs across the nation, Music In Our Schools Month serves as a hopeful sign of the future of music education in America.

Many teachers participate in Music In Our Schools Month by creating videos for local advocacy, sponsoring poster contests, having a music talent show, bringing in instruments for show-and-tell, having a school-wide concert, and taking a field trip to see other groups perform.  The ways to become involved are endless, but the idea is to have a full month of advocacy for the arts, supported by the public school system.

Every year, countless celebrities create PSA's advocating for the continuation of music education during Music In Our Schools Month.  Here, you can find the links to the MP3 files from 2014.

Photo courtesy of Steve Snodgrass

According to an article by Jennifer Cerbasi, "Music In Our Schools Month celebrates all the benefits of having quality music education programs in schools and encourages districts to maintain such programs at a time when many face tough budgetary constraints."  It is true that music education helps to foster children's academic, social, and emotional growth, and these benefits can be clearly seen throughout all the cross-curricular learning that occurs during Music In Our Schools Month.

Specifically, music teaches children discipline, perseverance, and work ethic, as well as comprehension skills, problem-solving skills, and focusing skills.  In addition, music encourages positive interactions with peers, which is extremely positive for young children.

For children with disabilities, music education is especially important.  Cerbasi states that "children are drawn to the rhythm of the instruments and many find a way to communicate and open themselves up by singing or playing an instrument."  Music is a way to communicate across languages and across life situations.  There are no limitations for communication using music, and music therapy programs are seeing amazing results in helping kids with disabilities learn through music.

Music In Our Schools Month is a wonderful endeavor and is remarkably important, especially in elementary schools.  According to an article by Laura Lewis Brown, when music education starts in elementary school, children have improved language development, higher IQ's, better spatial-temporal skills, improved test scores, and the simple benefit of just being musical.  Any civic issue can be improved with advocacy and awareness, and music education is no different.  Keep an eye out for Music In Our Schools Month activities and events near you when you are home for spring break.

The Inner-Workings of Music Education

To some people, music has no place in schools--it is simply an extra-curricular activity that takes valuable classroom time away from math, science, and literature.  To others, it is seen as a form of enrichment vital to the success of every student.

Image courtesy of NAfME

The National Association for Music Education, or NAfME, is the premier advocate for music education in public schools (you can find NAfME's mission statement here).  For over one hundred years, NAfME has expanded to include a force of over 130,000 members consisting of music teachers, college students, and concerned citizens, all bound together through a common passion for music education and a drive to raise awareness for the many benefits of music for students.

In addition to social benefits and sheer enjoyment, science supports countless arguments for keeping music and arts in public schools.  According to the Broader Minded blog, powered by NAfME, music has been scientifically proven to improve cognition, reading skills, grade point averages, attendance and graduation rates, spatial reasoning abilities, standardized test scores, and the ability to focus.  It allows students to stay engaged and interested in all their coursework, and helps students who may be lagging behind to catch up with their peers.  Additionally, music develops valuable life skills such as grit and determination, creativity, collaboration, communication, critical thinking, emotional awareness, and self-reflection.

According to Wendy McMurdo, an author for "The Scientific American" online journal, "assiduous instrument training from an early age can help the brain to process sounds better, making it easier to stay focused when absorbing other subjects, from literature to calculus."

In this way, students with musical backgrounds develop stronger working memories, which becomes an essential tool for multitasking--a skill required in any field in today's fast-paced, technology-filled world.  All companies expect their employees to be able to perform multiple tasks at once, process and remember instructions, and produce a high-quality result.  The skills learned in music class, like counting rhythms while playing notes and watching a conductor, become stepping stones into writing reports while answering calls and addressing clients' needs, for instance.

Still, many school boards still insist on cutting music programs.  Administrators place so much value in preparing students for standardized tests that music and art programs get overlooked.  Since the sections of the SAT are Reading, Math, and Writing & Language, the classes directly pertaining to these subjects have priority (they are core classes, after all).  Yet, some high schools are adding mandatory SAT preparation classes that hinder a student's ability to take a music class elective.  On occasion, the addition of these preparation classes is the tipping point in the budget that makes it impossible for schools to fund a music program.

What some school boards don't consider is the way that a student's musical background can vastly increase achievement on standardized tests.  For example, the College Board score report for the 2012 SAT shows that students who participated in music scored an average of 31 points above average in reading, 23 points above average in math, and 31 points above average in writing.

Image courtesy of The College Board

Because colleges look for high SAT and ACT scores for acceptance, students who have a musical background appear to have a leg-up in college admissions.

In addition to helping students, keeping music programs greatly helps schools achieve higher ratings, higher attendance, and higher graduation rates.  According to NAfME, "schools that have music programs have significantly higher graduation rates than do those without music programs (90.2 percent as compared to 72.9 percent)."  Because schools with higher ratings generally receive more funding, keeping music education could result in a higher income and a better reputation for a school.

While the arguments for keeping the arts are vast and compelling, many administrators remain unconvinced.  Some argue that no studies completed can prove causation and that other factors, like family life and socioeconomic status, are more responsible for higher achievement.  Additionally, other studies claim that music class electives simply attract students with higher test scores and the content learned in those classes has no impact on a student's achievement.  And, many point out that while studies list the countless benefits of music education, music is not a cure-all for low achievement in the classroom.

Yet, even if music enrichment helps just a handful of students to reach their full potential and experience success in their schooling and careers, it is well-worth the fight.

Side-note: Check out the story behind the youth orchestra that performed with Coldplay for the Superbowl halftime show last Sunday--music is a powerful thing!

Image courtesy of the Los Angeles Times

The Arts: Forever on the Chopping Block

We’ve all seen the headlines—“Local Elementary School’s Music Program Cut After School Board’s Tough Call,” “Middle School’s Choral Director Let Go Due to Budget Cuts,” and “High School Marching Band Program on the Chopping Block.”

Countless stories in local, regional, and national news appear daily, telling of the cuts that spell out disaster for arts education in the United States.

Photo courtesy of Roland Herrera

Music and arts education programs disappear constantly.  Due to the difficult state of the economy, budgets in public schools are tight and funding for all departments is limited.  However it seems as though, more often than not, music and arts programs are the first areas to take the hit.  Many times, school districts would rather cut a whole department than redistribute funds—the solution is easier, less taxing to deliberate, and is the widely-accepted way of navigating a tight budget.

How did the fine arts become so expendable?

To begin, these programs require a large sum of money to run and to be successful.  To administrators, the cost of instruments, music scores, uniforms, music stands, choir risers, storage space, and all the other expenses required to keep a music program running, are impractical and superfluous, since many music programs do not have an obvious payout.  Many concerts that schools perform are available to the public for little to no cost.  The revenue made by high school orchestras or choirs in no way compares to the revenue made by high school football or basketball teams, which may bring in thousands of spectators paying $5 admission each. 

This issue is most apparent at the elementary and middle school levels, where musical groups are not quite at a high performance level, get very little publicity, and bring in no profit for the school.  Draining funding for the arts at the lower levels, however, squashes any chance of any school district producing high achieving high school ensembles that would be capable of bringing in publicity and profit to their school. 

Research presented by Southern California Public Radio demonstrates that in Southern California School Districts, funding for the arts is not consistent across all twelve grade levels of public school.  This trend is consistent across the United States.

Because a majority of school districts never do get to witness the effects of truly strong music or arts education, they tend to place value in other programs.  School districts tend to value the programs, like sports and STEM, that receive steady funding for all twelve years of a students’ education in the public schools system and consistently generate tangible, positive, obvious results.

Because the benefits of music and arts education are less tangible than a sum of money, the programs are consistently overlooked in budget considerations by school boards across the nation.

In addition to monetary concerns, schools tend to place the most value in the curriculum that translates directly into careers and degree programs where students are considered to be the most successful.  STEM—Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math education has been picking us steam.  

According to the California STEM Learning Network, "STEM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math education.  We focus on these areas together not only because the skills and knowledge in each discipline are essential for student success, but also because these fields are deeply intertwined in the real world and in students learn most effectively.  STEM is an interdisciplinary and applied approach that is coupled with hands-on, problem-based learning."

School districts can clearly discern and demonstrate to a concerned parent board how a STEM-based curriculum can translate into a student’s success in the “real world.”  Yet, administrators have less success convincing their constituents how an education in music and the arts can translate to high achievement in today’s extremely competitive job market.

Photo courtesy of Horia Varlan

Many parents and administrators are extremely concerned with students’ standardized test scores, which are vital to acceptance in any university and additionally measure a school district’s achievement—a vital statistic for many schools when states are distributing funding.  Since the standardized tests have no “music” or “arts” section, many adults do not see the use in studying these “extra” topics in school that take time away from classes in math or science.

Yet hopefully, through the next four blog posts, I will be able to shed some light on the controversy revolving around funding for the arts in schools and present compelling arguments and concrete data to convince others to advocate for this vital aspect of public education.