Why Arts?
There is such an incredible push these days for our students to be incredibly literate and numerate, to pursue science, technology, enterprise and mathematics, to focus on a trade, to be problem solvers, deep thinkers and active and ethical members of our communities. The curriculum becomes more crowded each and every year, and it can be easy to think that there are 'core' subjects, and that opportunities to study music, dance and drama are 'options'. However, research has consistantly demonstrated that students that study music are happier, healthier, more successful at school, achieve higher grades, are more engaged and less likely to engage in risky behaviours as they enter teenage years.
Music is fundamental to the human experience. Every culture in the world creates music. Further to this, every culture in history has made music. Musical instruments are amoungst the oldest man made artefacts discovered, with one of the oldest flutes discovered being 37,000 years old. Compare this to reading and writing; the earliest forms of writing are only about 3500 years old, and many cultures in the world still do not read of write!
So why is it important to learn about music? Why is it important to learn to read and write? Communication. The more we learn, the more we can say what we want to say. It’s the same with music. The more we learn about music, the more we will be able to say what we want to say in music; things that cannot be said in words. But that’s not all. The more we learn about music, the more we will also understand about what it means to be human.
Why is music especially important for kids? Children’s brains are developing. Children’s brains are like sponges that soak up anything that’s going, creating neural pathways that form the basis of new understanding and knoweledge. That means children are much more ready to hear new things than adults. Many adults think that certain types of music (for example, classical music) are not for children. In fact the opposite is often true. If an adult has not heard a particular type of music in childhood, then they will not normally like that music as an adult. This means they will ignore it. On the other hand, a child will just take in new music as yet another new experience in their lives.
Years of research show that it's closely linked to almost everything that we as a nation say we want for our children and demand from our schools: academic achievement, social and emotional development, civic engagement, and equitable opportunity.
Music is fundamental to the human experience. Every culture in the world creates music. Further to this, every culture in history has made music. Musical instruments are amoungst the oldest man made artefacts discovered, with one of the oldest flutes discovered being 37,000 years old. Compare this to reading and writing; the earliest forms of writing are only about 3500 years old, and many cultures in the world still do not read of write!
So why is it important to learn about music? Why is it important to learn to read and write? Communication. The more we learn, the more we can say what we want to say. It’s the same with music. The more we learn about music, the more we will be able to say what we want to say in music; things that cannot be said in words. But that’s not all. The more we learn about music, the more we will also understand about what it means to be human.
Why is music especially important for kids? Children’s brains are developing. Children’s brains are like sponges that soak up anything that’s going, creating neural pathways that form the basis of new understanding and knoweledge. That means children are much more ready to hear new things than adults. Many adults think that certain types of music (for example, classical music) are not for children. In fact the opposite is often true. If an adult has not heard a particular type of music in childhood, then they will not normally like that music as an adult. This means they will ignore it. On the other hand, a child will just take in new music as yet another new experience in their lives.
Years of research show that it's closely linked to almost everything that we as a nation say we want for our children and demand from our schools: academic achievement, social and emotional development, civic engagement, and equitable opportunity.
Contact Mrs George
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about any of the programmes at school.
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