Exploring the Repercussions of School Budget Cuts

“Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without.” ― Confucius

Music is one of the easiest ways that we can express ourselves and experience different emotions and feelings. Either through dancing, playing an instrument or just listening, music helps us cope with our day to day life, without even realising.

For some, music creates a safe environment where they can hide from hard moments they encounter, or offers them a minute of relaxation in their busy lives and for some, music helps them be brave and face their problems.

Music means something different for all of us, however we often take it for granted and do not realise the benefits music has on our mental health and emotional behaviour.

Recently, I read an article about the repercussions of schools budget cuts on programs such as art’s and music and how students, sometimes do not have the opportunity to practice them in school. I then remembered how my primary school often used to change music lessons with subjects like Maths and English, considered more important to learn.

To find out more about this subject, I have decided to research a bit more and below are the results I found.

Learning and practising music has showed that in some cases it can improve students’ performance in exams and helps develop social skills, memory, attention, language and mathematics. C. Gaser, Ph.D and, G. Schlaug M.D. Ph.D found, in a study conducted In 2013, that grey matter in areas of the brain responsible for auditory, motor and visual skills of children that actively practise music, is greater than in those who do not or just started playing an instrument.

Furthermore, in 2014 the Northwestern University found that children who attended music classes regularly, and actively participated in those classes, had better speech processing abilities and higher reading scores than children not involved in music classes.

Music can be used as a form of expression, encouraging students to show their emotions, helping empathetic development. Listening or playing sad music is believed to be connected to the hormone prolactin, which is correlated with curbing grief. Being exposed to different types of music makes students experience different emotions and they can me more empathetic and better at identifying them.

Playing music encourages students to learn about how the instruments work and how their body connects with the instruments. For example if a children plays guitar, he is more likely to learn about the hand movements and the anatomy of the hand.

E. Glenn Schellenberg found that children who took music lessons had greater increases in their IQ than children who didn’t take music lessons. The results showed improvements in IQ subtests, index scores, and a standardized measure of academic achievement.

Even though more research has to be made on the benefits music has on children development and emotional behaviour, why do other subjects take priority over music?

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Valeria is a recruitment consultant at Class People and recruits teachers, teaching assistants and early years practitioners for Bristol, Swindon and Oxford. If you are interested in supply teaching or know someone who is, please email Valeria@classpeople.co.uk or click here to submit your CV.