All students should receive a well-balanced, comprehensive, high-quality, sequential program of music taught by teachers who are certified in music education. This message must be carried at the local level to school administrators, members of boards of education and local communities. Use the advocacy materials and information offered here in your work to educate your community on the importance of music education for every student.
Advocacy Committee Members
Heidi Corliss – MMEA Advocacy Chair
Emily Dunlap
Molly J. Webster
Click here to ready the Advocacy Introduction Letter
How to tap into federal funds for music education: The Advocacy and Public Policy team recorded a presentation that has been shared with NAfME members and other arts education on how to utilize the new U.S. Dept. of Education guidance on federal funding and arts education. You can also share a recently released blog regarding the same topic.
The Benefits of Music Education – TED talk by Anita Collins
Music fills our souls. It gives us the ability to feel happiness, sorrow, romance, strength and weakness. Music is a part of everything in our lives. Can you imagine a TV show or movie without music? It gives the ability to become a part of what we are watching. Can you imagine a life without birds singing, leaves rustling or a brook babbling? Music is life. The cooing of a baby as the mother hums it to sleep, dancing the night away with a loved one or the humming of an elder in a rocking chair reminiscing on their youth. Music brings us together as one, whether in a tribal dance, a high school choir or band or a symphony or opera. Music transcends boundaries, language religion. Music is what makes us human. I cannot imagine a life without music. It is an integral part of who I am. I still play the piano everyday and I am the music director at my church. It has been and will forever be a powerful force in my life. – Robert Bahr, Retired Music Teacher
Being involved in music taught me more about working as a team toward a common goal than being an athlete ever did. It taught me how to be unselfish in pursuit of something greater. When you share an emotional connection to a piece of music with someone, there is a bond there that can’t really be replicated elsewhere in life, which is why my closest friendships all started with music. That emotional connection is healing – whether it be putting Yo Yo Ma’s Bach Cello Suite on an iPod for my dad when he was at Mass General, to dancing to Van Morrison at my wedding, I don’t think it’s possible to overstate the critical role music has played in shaping my life. -Andrew Dean, Public School Counselor
If we’re talking about direct skills that translate: I feel like music made me a lot more adaptable than I otherwise would have been. Certainly required in performance when things don’t go as planned. Adaptability is what you need in my career path anyway. -Vernon Beasley, Biotech Engineer
Music classes taught me to listen to and collaborate with my peers. When playing or singing with an ensemble, your ears have to be open and aware of the whole and how you contribute to it. Additionally, the critical thinking required to learn to read music or to play different instruments helped sharpen my mind and keep my brain flexible. It was a crucial part of my development and helped me to learn quickly in other classes and in the workplace. -Madison Albert, IT Engineer
Chorus builds so much more than an ability to read music and sing. It teaches you good posture, how to breathe, how to extend yourself, how to work cohesively with people you may not otherwise know, and, most importantly perhaps, it teaches you to try even when you’re uncertain of the result. Nothing starts at perfection but time and effort can create beautiful music — a critical lesson to expand to all aspects of life. Chorus builds self-esteem and camaraderie and exercises your ability to read and DO at the same time. This is all aside from the fact that music as a whole is deeply therapeutic and meaningful. It gives you a way to express emotions you may not easily put into words or writing. Chorus doesn’t just cross cultures it spans the length of human history and draws out a certain piece in your soul whether you’re in the chorus or listening to it. Chorus is a powerful tool and I credit it for many of the real world skills I use today in my personal and professional life (which is, sadly, nowhere in the realm of music). Once you’ve participated in chorus you’ve added so many tools to your toolbox that you won’t realize until far down the road. I wouldn’t be who I am today without chorus and without music. -Courtney Smith
Chorus was 90 minutes every other day to take a step back and be part of something bigger than myself. My voice by itself was good but the ability to create a perfectly in sync harmony with 100 others was truly magical and that’s the real lesson, right? You can have 20 out of 100 great singers but if you have 5 not on the same wavelength, it falls apart – it’s the exact same as every team in corporate America.
Not only that, chorus was also a class that you had to be 100% present in. Other classes can be learned in books, but creating a beautiful noise with others had to come with practice. I’m actually pretty sure if you didn’t have a whiteboard in a chorus classroom, you could still have a beautiful chorus.
– Dillon Corliss, Food Scientist
The world is in great need of more music education. When students play music, it allows a part of their artistic mind to express itself, which is very important in helping to balance a child intellectually, spiritually, and emotionally. – Paul Reed Smith, President of PRS Guitars (Source: Guitar Center Music Foundation Interview) – Former USA President, Barack Obama (Source: 2010 message to the World Choir Games in Shaoxing, China)
…there is little doubt that regular exposure to music, and especially active participation in music, may stimulate development of many different areas of the brain. Takako Fujioka and her colleagues, for example, looking at children with a single year of violin training (compared to children with no training), recorded striking changes in activity in the brain’s left hemisphere. In terms of brain development, musical performance is every bit as important educationally as reading or writing.– Oliver Sacks, Neurologist & Writer (Source: Musicophilia: Six Questions for Oliver Sacks Interview, 2009)
Learning improves in school environments where there are comprehensive music and arts programs. They increase the ability of young people to do math. They increase the ability of young people to read. And most important of all, they’re a lot of fun.– Former President Bill Clinton (Source: The White House at Work, 2000)
The things I learned from my experience in music in school are discipline, perseverance, dependability, composure, courage and pride in results… Not a bad preparation for the workforce!– Gregory Anrig, President, Educational Testing Service (Source: direct source is unverifiable but quote is attributed to individual.)
There is a practical reason for music education: it teaches people to think, to solve problems, to take risks, to think independently, to be an entrepreneur and innovator. The virtues of music education are the virtues of free enterprise in general and of a high tech, knowledge based society in particular: flexibility, adaptability, inventiveness, even playfulness.– William E. LaMothe, C.E.O., Xerox Company (Source: direct source is unverifiable but quote is attributed to individual.)
The musician is constantly adjusting decisions on tempo, tone, style, rhythm, phrasing, and feeling–training the brain to become incredibly good at organizing and conducting numerous activities at once. Dedicated practice of this orchestration can have a great payoff for lifelong attentional skills, intelligence, and an ability for self-knowledge and expression.– Ratey John J., MD. (Source: A User’s Guide to the Brain. New York: Pantheon Books, 2001)
Doing so is neuroprotective. “It helps you build up larger brain networks and new pathways,” Daniel Levitin, the author of the recent book I Heard There Was a Secret Chord: Music as Medicine, told me. You build these pathways by listening to music, he told me, but physically playing an instrument strengthens motor pathways as well: “You’re building up a lot of brain capacity.” Musicians tend to have better attention than nonmusicians. Banging on a drum or tooting a horn can also relieve stress, reduce burnout, and help with anxiety and depression. For older people specifically, research has shown potential cognitive benefits along with a possible decrease in dementia risk. – From The Atlantic: “It’s Never Too Late to Learn an Instrument” By Caroline Mimbs Nyce
State Senator/Legislator Contact Information:
Senator Susan Collins – https://www.collins.senate.gov/contact
Senator Angus King – https://www.king.senate.gov/contact/office-locations
Representative Chellie Pingree – https://pingree.house.gov/contact/
Representative Jared Golden – https://golden.house.gov/contact-1
How to craft your advocacy story: Legislators want to hear your stories as you advocate. This may also work with administrators and school boards. Here is a suggested format from Jen Doulby of the Congressional Management Foundation.
1. Introduction
2. Describe the problem
3. Suggest Solution
4. Tell story illustrating why you are asking
5. Thank them
More info coming soon!
