The importance of Music in our schools

Florencia Ottonello

Alison Lucas

The Importance of Music in Our Schools

By Debra Levy

When we hear about music and other art programs in our school curriculum, most of us are guilty of putting it aside. For example, the focus is then put on the basic or standard studies in schools such as reading, writing and arithmetic. Little do a lot of us know that the importance of including music in that list is as crucial as the others.

Programs are being cut from school budgets at an alarming rate to save money, i.e. physical education, art and music classes. There is already a whole generation of teachers and parents who haven’t had the advantages of arts in their own education. Many teachers don’t know how to include any kind of art in their teaching these days and parents don’t know how to ask for it.

 

Studies have shown that including musical studies such as learning to play an instrument or class sing-alongs and even drama have impacted the way children learn and process knowledge.

Stated from an interview with Tom Home, Arizona’s state superintendent of public instruction, “There’s lots of evidence that kids immersed in the arts do better on their academic tests.”

The connection of math and music is in the note reading for instance. Quarter, half and whole notes can be applied to fractions, and numbers as well as symbols can also apply to mathematics. The word reading in songs can apply to languages arts, just to mention a couple of ways music is useful in academics.

There is a primitive approach to music classes in schools to this day and by reading the studies out there and seeing the growth of technology, maybe there is a more modern way to go about teaching these skills to our kids.

The arts feed on each other and develop self esteem and confidence. It is also known for the development of social interaction, small and large motor skills. For instance, children can learn as a group and dancing or playing an instrument helps develop social and motor skills alike.

Often music classes involve such things as clapping of hands, stomping of feet, basic dancing and singing at the top of your lungs; who wouldn’t have fun doing that? Some studies have shown that developmentally or physically challenged children have responded very positively to music programs and that breathing and speech disabilities improved over time. For example, using these skills in therapy, it helps to develop breathing and hand mouth coordination.

Source: http://www.childrensmusicworkshop.com/advocacy/musedimp/

"The Question of Class".

“The Question of Class”. 

Paul Gorski calls on fellow educators examine the classist assumptions infiltrating classrooms and schools.

Issue 31, Spring 2007

Paul Gorski

Paul C. Gorski challenges educators to push beyond a one-dimensional understanding of poverty. Rather than examining a so-called "culture of poverty"—a term used by the very popular Ruby Payne and others who write and speak about poverty at the national level—Gorski urges educators to question the culture of classist assumptions that infiltrates our classrooms and schools.

For too long, educators' approach to understanding the relationships between poverty, class and education has been framed by studying the behaviors and cultures of poor students and their families. If only we—in the middle and upper-middle classes—can understand their culture, why those people don't value education, why those parents don't attend our functions and meetings, why those kids are so unmotivated, perhaps we can "save" some of our economically disadvantaged students from the bleak futures before them. And so we set about studying what Ruby Payne (author of A Framework for Understanding Poverty) and others describe as the "culture of poverty," how poor people see and experience the world, how they relate to food, money, relationships, education and other aspects of life. This, despite that research has shown again and again that no such culture of poverty exists.

It's all too easy, for even the most well-meaning of us, to help perpetuate classism by buying into that mindset, implementing activities and strategies for "working with parents in poverty" or "teaching students in poverty" that, however subtly, suggest we must fix poor people instead of eliminating the inequities that oppress them.

The question, of course, for any educator of privilege committed to educational equity is this: Do we choose to study supposed cultures or mindsets of poverty because doing so doesn't require an examination of our own class-based prejudices? By avoiding that question, we also avoid the messy, painful work of analyzing how classism pervades our classrooms and schools, never moving forward toward an authentic understanding of poverty, class and education.

What does it mean, for example, that high-poverty schools have more teachers teaching outside their areas of certification, larger numbers of teacher vacancies, and fewer experienced teachers than low-poverty schools? That they're more likely to lack full access to computers and the Internet? That they have inadequate facilities and classroom materials? Or that students in high-poverty schools are more likely than their wealthier counterparts to be subjected to overcrowded classrooms, dirty or inoperative bathrooms, less rigorous curricula and encounters with vermin such as rats and cockroaches? Or that these students are more likely to attend schools with serious teacher turnover problems and lower teacher salaries than students at low-poverty schools? And why do Payne and other "experts" so often fail to mention these inequalities?

These inequitable conditions—or, in Jonathan Kozol's words, these savage inequalities—have nothing to do with a so-called mindset or culture of poverty, nor with any other supposedly intrinsic or inherent value held by the people they most impact. They're wholly disconnected from any measure of intelligence, eagerness to learn, or effort. Yet they deeply influence learning and inhibit our most underserved students' access to equitable educational opportunity.

The reality gets worse. Children from economically disadvantaged families are more likely than their middle class or wealthy peers to suffer preventable illnesses caused by inadequate healthcare, lack of health insurance and contaminated living spaces. They're more likely to experience hunger and homelessness, to go without meals, without shelter and warmth. They're more likely to live in neighborhoods with unsafe levels of environmental pollutants, to lack safe places to play, safe water to drink, safe air to breathe. 

Regardless of whether a child living in poverty wants to learn, regardless of whether she's determined to make the best life for herself, she must first overcome enormous barriers to life's basic needs—the kinds of needs that middle-class people, including most professional educators, usually take for granted: access to healthcare; sufficient food and lodging; reasonably safe living conditions. Again, none of these conditions speaks to the values or desires of students in poverty, although they may speak to the values of a nation that can afford to eliminate these inequities but chooses not to.

So where do we start? 

Students: Alfonso Diego - Cabrera Jeniffer

Dahiana Curbelo

Frida Kahlo is a Mexican painter, born on July 6, 1907 and dead on July 13, 1954.

Frida claimed to be born on 1910, the year of the outbreak of the Mexican revolution, because she wanted her life began together with the modern Mexico.

This detail well introduces us to a singular personality, characterized since her childhood by a deep sense of independence and rebellion against social and moral ordinary habits, moved by passion and sensuality, proud of her "Mexicanidad" and cultural tradition set against the reigning Americanization: everything mixed with a peculiar sense of humour.

Her life was marked by physical suffering, started with the polio contracted at the age of five and worsen by her life-dominating event occurred in 1925. A bus accident caused severe injuries to her body owing to a pole that pierced her from the stomach to the pelvis. The medicine of her time tortured her body with surgical operations (32 throughout her life), corsets of different kinds and mechanical "stretching" systems.

Lots of her works were painted laying in the bed. Because of these physical conditions Frida could not have children and this was devastating for her.

She had a great love, Diego Rivera (she married twice with this man and dedicated to him a passionate diary) but also a lot of lovers, men and women, such as Leon Trotsky and André Breton's wife....

It is impossible to sum up in few lines the complexity and charm of Frida's life.

Among her numerous biographies I would suggest "FRIDA. A Biography of Frida Kahlo" by Hayden Herrera and the following online resources:

Google Cultural Institute (in Spanish) - by Patricia Cordero for Museo Dolores Olmedo

Biography.com (follow the below link)

video by ProjectDystopia (1:01:15)

video by RAI ARTE  (in Italian)

Materiales:

http://www.fridakahlo.it/en/biografia.php

https://www.biography.com/people/frida-kahlo-9359496

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCjZoKBQKy8&t=5s

100% green school in Uruguay teaches sustainable development.

Uruguay waste is piling up and materials are lacking. However, an association called Tagma decided to build a 100% sustainable school. The building is mainly based on waste and is energy self-sufficient, it will teach kids to better consume and recycle.

But the school is not content to clear the streets of its waste. It is also designed to be completely self-sufficient in energy: the roof is covered with solar panels to generate electricity and the heating they need. Environmentally, the school also bets on the recovery, treatment, and storage of rainwater: enough to power the bathrooms, the kitchen and the garden.

The building also has small organic crops, used to supply the canteen with fresh products. The aim is also to teach gardening to the children, so that they can reproduce at home. In this school, the focus of education is particularly on the nature, its phenomena and its protection. School children are well aware of the principles of sustainable development, recycling and reuse of materials: knowledge that will enable them to innovate in their daily lives and enhance low cost resources.

Since the beginning of the year, the village of Jaureguiberry is working on it. In this small Uruguayan village with 400 inhabitants, there are now more than 200 volunteers from around the world who are building this brand new public facilities: the “Escuela Sustentable” (Sustainable school).

This innovative school addresses two problems that affect the country. In Uruguay, there is the strongest Latin American literacy rate. This country has an education system that is working. Unfortunately, the lack of equipment, especially in the countryside, is a major obstacle to the overall expansion of education. Moreover, the country produces a lot of waste but does not know how to get rid of or recycled.

The Escuela Sustentable has been designed to address these two problems: school, built with over 60% of waste, allows children from neighbouring villages to have access to the same education as in large cities. Cans, plastic bottles, cardboard boxes, old tyres: the detritus of everyday life were used in the foundation of this building. And everyone is benefiting: the waste is having a second life and a hundred children are meeting there to learn in joy.

The aim is to teach gardening to the children, so that they can reproduce at home. In this school, the focus of education is particularly on the nature, its phenomena and its protection.

Students: Angela Braida - Yuliana ColmánSegunda prueba parcial

The Importance of Art in Child Development

By Grace Hwang Lynch

In recent years, school curricula in the United States have shifted heavily toward common core subjects of reading and math, but what about the arts? Although some may regard art education as a luxury, simple creative activities are some of the building blocks of child development. Learning to create and appreciate visual aesthetics may be more important than ever to the development of the next generation of children as they grow up.

Developmental Benefits of Art

Motor Skills: Many of the motions involved in making art, such as holding a paintbrush or scribbling with a crayon, are essential to the growth of fine motor skills in young children. According to the National Institutes of Health, developmental milestones around age three should include drawing a circle and beginning to use safety scissors. Around age four, children may be able to draw a square and begin cutting straight lines with scissors. Many preschool programs emphasize the use of scissors because it develops the dexterity children will need for writing.

Language Development: For very young children, making art—or just talking about it—provides opportunities to learn words for colors, shapes and actions. When toddlers are as young as a year old, parents can do simple activities such as crumpling up paper and calling it a “ball.” By elementary school, students can use descriptive words to discuss their own creations or to talk about what feelings are elicited when they see different styles of artwork.

Decision Making: According to a report by Americans for the Arts, art education strengthens problem-solving and critical-thinking skills. The experience of making decisions and choices in the course of creating art carries over into other parts of life. “If they are exploring and thinking and experimenting and trying new ideas, then creativity has a chance to blossom,” says MaryAnn Kohl, an arts educator and author of numerous books about children’s art education.

Visual Learning: Drawing, sculpting with clay and threading beads on a string all develop visual-spatial skills, which are more important than ever. Even toddlers know how to operate a smart phone or tablet,

 which means that even before they can read, kids are taking in visual information. This information consists of cues that we get from pictures or three-dimensional objects from digital media, books and television.

“Parents need to be aware that children learn a lot more from graphic sources now than in the past,” says Dr. Kerry Freedman, Head of Art and Design Education at Northern Illinois University. “Children need to know more about the world than just what they can learn through text and numbers. Art education teaches students how to interpret, criticize, and use visual information, and how to make choices based on it.” Knowledge about the visual arts, such as graphic symbolism, is especially important in helping kids become smart consumers and navigate a world filled with marketing logos.

Inventiveness: When kids are encouraged to express themselves and take risks in creating art, they develop a sense of innovation that will be important in their adult lives. “The kind of people society needs to make it move forward are thinking, inventive people who seek new ways and improvements, not people who can only follow directions,” says Kohl. “Art is a way to encourage the process and the experience of thinking and making things better!”

Cultural Awareness: As we live in an increasingly diverse society, the images of different groups in the media may also present mixed messages. “If a child is playing with a toy that suggests a racist or sexist meaning, part of that meaning develops because of the aesthetics of the toy—the color, shape, texture of the hair,” says Freedman. Teaching children to recognize the choices an artist or designer makes in portraying a subject helps kids understand the concept that what they see may be someone’s interpretation of reality.

Improved Academic Performance: Studies show that there is a correlation between art and other achievement. A report by Americans for the Arts states that young people who participate regularly in the arts (three hours a day on three days each week through one full year) are four times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement, to participate in a math and science fair or to win an award for writing an essay or poem than children who do not participate.

SOURCE:

http://www.pbs.org/parents/education/music-arts/the-importance-of-art-in-child-development/