Music for Music's Sake?
Music for Music’s Sake While there are many great reasons for students to be involved in music for its ancillary benefits in helping boost performance in other academic areas, is that the only reason music should be part of the curriculum in K-12 schools? We don’t approach English classes by telling students that reading Shakespeare will help students in their algebra class, or that studying quadratic equations will help students in their history class (and I’m not just pulling those examples randomly, I think a case can be made for both!). So let’s take the ancillary out of the equation for now and let’s look at reasons why music should be studied for its own sake. Probably the biggest hurdle in advocating for any of the arts (music, literature, visual arts, theatre) is that far too many people don’t see a “practical” application. By this they usually mean that they don’t see an immediate financial benefit. This is the perennial debate when it comes to funding school pro...