Music should alwasy be an essential and core element to academic life in the Hingham Public Schools. Here you will find links and information that you can use to educate yourself about the value of music and how you can get involved to do more!
FACTOIDS (from www.supportmusic.com):
“The term ‘core academic subjects’ means English, reading or language arts, mathematics, science, foreign languages, civics and government, economics, arts, history, and geography.” — No Child Left Behind Act of 2002, Title IX, Part A, Sec. 9101 (11)
The College Board identifies the arts as one of the six basic academic subject areas students should study in order to succeed in college. — Academic Preparation for College: What Students Need to Know and Be Able to Do, 1983 [still in use], The College Board, New York
The U.S. Department of Education lists the arts as subjects that college-bound middle and junior high school students should take, stating "Many colleges view participation in the arts and music as a valuable experience that broadens students’ understanding and appreciation of the world around them. It is also well known and widely recognized that the arts contribute significantly to children’s intellectual development." In addition, one year of Visual and Performing Arts is recommended for college-bound high school students [Hingham High School requires one year of Fine or Applied Arts]. — Getting Ready for College Early: A Handbook for Parents of Students in the Middle and Junior High School Years, U.S. Department of Education, 1997
“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. A User’s Guide to the Brain. New York: Pantheon Books, 2001.
Researchers at the University of Montreal used various brain imaging techniques to investigate brain activity during musical tasks and found that sight-reading musical scores and playing music both activate regions in all four of the cortex's lobes; and that parts of the cerebellum are also activated during those tasks. — Sergent, J., Zuck, E., Tenial, S., and MacDonall, B. (1992). Distributed neural network underlying musical sight reading and keyboard performance. Science, 257, 106-109.
One limitation on the practical scheduling of music classes is often concern over impact on students' other studies from "pull-out" programs, in which students leave ongoing classes for music study. A 1985 Study by Edward Kvet of Loyola University found, however, that sixth-grade students involved in music study through pull-out programs do just as well in reading, language, and mathematics as their counterparts who don't leave class for music study.
The very best engineers and technical designers in the Silicon Valley industry are, nearly without exception, practicing musicians. -- Grant Venerable, "The Paradox of the Silicon Savior," as reported in "The Case for Sequential Music Education in the Core Curriculum of the Public Schools."
MUSIC IMPROVES VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT Four groups of children aged six to nine years, who were experiencing reading difficulties, participated in a program involving listening to music. There were improvements in learning new words. The findings suggest that music may be an effective learning medium for aspects of language development, especially for students with reading problems. [source: Bygrave, P.L. (1995-1996). Development of receptive vocabulary skills through exposure to music. Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education no. 127, Winter, pg. 28-34] -- from To The Point, Norman M. Weinberger