Academic Major: Music Education
The Sound of Learning: The role of Music in Education
The purpose of this project is to demonstrate and explain the developmental benefits of learning music at a young age. Throughout my life, I have noticed that music impacts children's learning and brain development. However, New York City cut $2.7 million from the COMPASS Explore program, which focuses on a single subject, including music, for grades K-12. (Zimmer, A. (2024, March 21). After-school cuts catch NYC programs by surprise - Chalkbeat) In addition to this, in 2024,New York City Mayor Eric Adams asked the Department of Education to reduce spending by 3%, which naturally would detrimentally affect art and music programs. (Elsen-Rooney, M., & Zimmerman, A. (2023, November 20). NYC Education Department cuts $547 million to comply with Eric Adams order - Chalkbeat)This is raising many concerns about the early development stages of kids because they will not have the opportunities to experience these fields and to get inspired with ideas of who they might want to be when they grow up. Without these opportunities, I would not be where I am today, and these extracurricular activities are a huge contribution to shaping a well-rounded education for all children. In this research project, I will be visiting public schools in New York City during my observation hours and interviewing the parents, principals, and teachers of these schools to discuss their view of the importance of music, their encounters with music, and how it affected their life growing up. The results of this will be a documentation of all my findings that will be posted online as are source in the Music Education field. I will need strong skills in communication (written and verbal), data collection, and organization (time management, record-keeping). These skills will come in handy because I will be using them every day in my life as a music educator. My long-term goal for this project is to offer new ideas of how to make music accessible for grades K-12. The purpose of this project is to dive deeper into the controversy of connecting music to education and understand the importance of it while advocating for music to be a part of education.