Deborah Jeter, coordinator of the MusicStaff.com Teacher's Lounge, is a graduate of the University of North Texas State with a degree in Music Education. She has taught music education at all levels, including undergraduates at the University of Houston. She has performed with the Houston Grand Opera, and performed under the direction of the late Anton Dorati, former conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra. She has sung on several children's albums and has performed in Europe in five different countries. Some of her stage work includes roles as, Rizzo, in Grease, Martha, in The Secret Garden and Nancy, in Oliver. She is co-producer for two international blues albums. Currently pursuing her Masters in Instructional Technology, she hopes to enter the millenium with new and innovative ideas for the field of education using technology and multimedia.

Teacher's Lounge Editor: Deborah Jeter Presents, Music and Intelligence

Music, Fine Arts and You

There has been a great deal of discussion in the past year about the importance of Fine Arts programs in our schools. Still, many Fine Arts teachers have found it difficult to convice parents, administrators and legislators of this fact. One after the other, school districts are having to deal with Congressional cutbacks. And as we have seen, one of the first areas put "under the knife or microscope" is the Fine Arts curriculum.

Many schools, especially those in cash-strappped big-city districts, have also had to cut back spending on arts classes as their tax bases decrease and as spending on areas like computers and special education takes up larger part of their budgets.

Underlying these cutbacks may also be large cultural changes that are shifting value away from the arts. It seems as though the primary goal of many people today is the accumulation property, wealth and power. "We have over-inflated the cultural value of business-related activities, and marginalized the cultural value of artistic pursuits", sais John Sowalsky in a recent discussion of advocacy for the Arts in the K-12 music newsgroup.

Having lost the moral support, music and arts advocates have resorted to scientific arguments to plead the case for music and arts.

RESEARCH THAT SUPPORTS MUSIC EDUCATION

The Mozart Effect

The Mozart Effect, reveals how exposure to sound, music and other vibration can have a lifelong effect on health, learning and behavior. The Mozart Effect is a scientific method that explains how one can use music to stimulate learning, improve memory, strengthen listening skills and find a more harmonious way of life.

Anne Blood, a researcher in neuropsychology at the Montreal Neurological Institute and McGill University in Canada, examined emotional responses to music among those with untrained ears. (AP, New York Times)

Brain imaging scans showed that different regions of the brain respond to pleasant, harmonious musical sounds and to musical sounds that clash, she said. Brain regions which showed activity during emotional responses to music were different from regions which showed activity in the absence of music.

As the music increased in unpleasantness, an area on the right side of the brain important to emotion -- the parahippocampal gyrus -- became active.

On the other hand, as the music increased in pleasantness, other areas on the left and right side that control emotions became active.

"Some day this research will help us to understand how different types of music can help in different kinds of neurological disorders," Ms. Blood said.

In another study, Lawrence Parsons and his colleagues at the University of Texas in San Antonio found that an area on the right side of the brain interprets written musical notes and passages. This corresponds to an area on the left side of the brain known to interpret written letters and words.

Eight right-handed faculty conductors were scanned as they read and listened to the score of an unfamiliar Bach chorale. They were instructed to point out errors in rhythm, harmony or melody.

"All three tasks activated both left and right brain areas," Parsons said. All three elements also strongly activated the cerebellum -- a small region of the brain responsible for posture, balance, coordination and fine motor movements.

Parsons said the understanding of links between musical language and spoken language could help in speech and language rehabilitation.

Doctors already use a technique called melodic intonation therapy that teaches stroke patients to sing rather than speak what they want to convey. In some cases they can recover their speech.

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE STATISTICS?

Nearly one American school in five fails to offer music or art classes -- even once a week -- according to a study conducted by the U.S. Education Department.

Music was the most commonly offered arts class: 81 percent of schools say it is taught at least once a week. Just 9 percent of schools offered no music courses at all.

Visual arts were taught at least once a week at 77 percent of schools, and 17 percent offered no such classes.

Weekly theater arts classes were offered at 17 percent of schools, with that subject unavailable at 74 percent of schools. And dance was offered at least once a week at 7 percent of schools, while it was unavailable at 80 percent.

Even at schools where the courses are offered, not everyone takes part. For example, only one in four eighth graders reported being asked to sing or play a music instrument at least once a week.

Not surprisingly, when students were tested for their knowledge and skills in the arts, those with frequent instruction did better than those who had fewer classes, according to results of the first National Assessment of Educational Progress in the arts.

For example, when asked to sing, create music and perform dances, students who had instruction at least once a week scored twice as high as students who didn't study music.

The NAEP study, often called the nation's report card, was done in 1997 on a representative sample of students across the nation attending both public and private schools. Previous report cards have assessed students' performance in math, history, reading and science.

COMMENTS FROM MUSIC EDUCATORS AND ADVOCATES

"In this age of information and when our economy is increasingly built on generating ideas, it is a serious mistake to shortchange our children's instruction in the arts," Education Secretary Richard W. Riley said in a statement.

"Arts education can be a creative way of connecting young people into education. The arts help them learn to solve problems, think creatively and develop mental discipline," said, Riley.

"What fascinates me is how the education of a child, using the Orff approach and its elemental emphasis of speech, movement, playing, improvising and singing, fosters the further development of all the intelligences, singly and together. To withdraw music education from a child's experience removes the most holistic, totally integrated way s/he has to perform concrete manipulations of his/her world."

Shared by, Martha Stanley:

Alfred North Whitehead said, "You must not divide the seamless coat of the soul."

Creating children who will thrive when they are adults is our single most important task as parents and teachers. Music touches every aspect of what it takes to thrive. It is definitely important to children in school."

So what can you do?

Some of the things that you can do, as Fine Arts educators, is to place factual information in our school newsletters to keep parents informed of the value of music education. One such blurb used in this month's newsletter at my school, was borrowed from the excellent site, Music Is . . :

1. Music contributes to the school and community environment (quality of life).
2. Music helps prepare students for a career and is an avocation.
3. Music makes the day more alive and interesting, which in turn leads to more learning.
4. Music combines behaviors to promote a higher order of thinking skills.
5. It provides a way to image and create, contribute to self-expression and creativity.
6. Music enriches life, it is a way to understand our cultural heritage as well as other past and present cultures.
7. Performing, consuming and composing are satisfying and rewarding activities.
8. Music contributes to sensitivity.
9. Music education provides for perceptual motor development. 10. It encourages team work and cohesiveness.
11. It fosters creativity and individuality.
12. Music education adds to self-worth of participants.
13. Music education fosters discipline and commitment.
14. It is a major source of joy and achievement.
15. Music provides unique and distinct modes of learning.
16. Music is a therapeutic outlet for human beings.
17. It is a predictor of life's success.
18. It develops intelligence in other areas.
19. To provide success for some students who have difficulty with other aspects of the school curriculum.
20. To help the student realize that not every aspect of quantifiable and that it is important to cope with the subjective.
21. The music program is very cost-effective.