University underrates music education

Junette Reyes/Contributing Writer

Being musically educated is treated merely as an option rather than the necessary skill it was once considered to be in the aristocratic times. The elementary school years are the only time in which we are mandated to take performing arts classes at least every other day. Beyond that, middle schools, high schools and universities all tend to categorize music courses, among other arts, as a means to satisfy an art credit requirement, including our own University.

“Music Appreciation” is jumbled up with other courses like “Introduction to Creative Writing,” making it difficult to choose a class that will satisfy the University’s three-credit art requirement. On top of that, this shuffled list of courses decreases the chances of a student choosing a music class, considering most performance classes are worth one credit.

Still, as popular as “Music Appreciation” might be, it does not fully encompass the skill being musically educated was considered to be since it is mainly a course on the history of music. Because of this, I believe that students should be obligated to take a fundamental music theory course apart from the art credit we are required to satisfy.

Several studies have proven that music lessons do have an impact on students and have even improved scores on “…IQ subtests, index scores, and a standardized measure of academic achievement,” as reported by E. Glenn Schellenberg of University of Toronto at Mississauga, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.

Results of the “Mozart Effect” have also concluded that “compared with sitting in silence for 10 minutes, listening to Mozart induces more positive moods and relatively optimal levels of arousal, which lead to higher levels of performance on tests of spatial abilities.”

While results showed a slight increase in scores for one sitting of a music lesson, which could also include listening to Mozart, if obligated to take an ongoing music course, students would greatly benefit from it since scores would eventually increase further.

Apart from these obvious reasons, being musically educated also allows us to be the kind of well-rounded student the University expects us to be, considering the University Core Curriculum is composed of  “…seven areas [that] were created to give FIU students a well-rounded academic background.”

Being musically educated might also prove to be handy, for it presents the possibility of having an extracurricular activity through the choice of learning to play an instrument.

There are certainly courses at the University that cover the basics of music, such as “Fundamentals of Music” and “Music Theory I,” but neither meets general education or core requirements, making it an inconvenience for students to take such a class when they do not need to. Priority is also given to students who major or minor in music.

The University should make at least one of these two courses a requirement for all students, but “Fundamentals of Music” is a prerequisite for “Music Theory I,” which makes me feel obligated to suggest both should be mandatory courses.

Therefore, keeping the benefits in mind, the University should add the two courses as requirements in the UCC for all students. Students can find themselves further appreciating music in every aspect, such as the composition of a song, and even exploring different genres they might have once never listened to before.

opinion@fiusm.com 

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