What People Have to Say About the Importance of Music in Our Schools

What People Say About the Importance of Music in Our Schools

George W. Bush, Governor of Texas

"The study of music is an important part of a complete education. It engages students in individual and group activity, develops creativity, problem solving, and critical and evaluative skills. Music education helps students acquire talent in the production and performance of music, as well as an understanding of history and culture."

Joseph M. Calahan, Director of Corporate Communications, Xerox Corporation

"Arts Education aids students in skills needed in the workplace: flexibility, the ability to solve problems and communicate, the ability to learn new skills, to be creative and innovative, and to strive for excellence."

Richard W. Riley, U. S. Secretary of Education

"I believe arts education in music, theater, dance and the visual arts is one of the most creative ways we have to find the gold that is buried just beneath the surface. They (children) have an enthusiasm for life, a spark of creativity, and vivid imaginations that need training….training that prepares them to become confident young men and women. The creativity of the arts and the joy of music should be central to the education of every American child."

Gregory Anrig, President, Educational Testing Service

"The things I learned from my experience in music in school are discipline, perseverance, dependability, composure, courage and pride in results…Not a bad preparation for the work force!”

Barbara Jordan, Former Texas Congresswoman

"The arts are not a frill. The arts are a response to our individuality and our nature, and help to shape our identity. What is there that can transcend deep difference and stubborn divisions? The arts. They have a wonderful universality. Art has the potential to unify. It can speak in many languages without a translator. The arts do not discriminate. The arts can lift us all up.”

Richard Dreyfuss, Star of Mr. Holland's Opus, in a speech to the 1996 American Federation of Teachers Convention

"Perhaps we've all misunderstood the reason we learn music, and all the arts, in the first place. It is not only so a student can learn the clarinet, or another student can take an acting lesson. It is that for hundreds of years it has been known that teaching the arts, along with history and math and biology, helps to create the "well-rounded mind" that western civilization and America have been grounded upon. We need that "well-rounded mind" now, for it is from creativity and imagination that the solutions to our political and social problems will come."

Texaco Foundation

"We are especially interested in the role that music plays in improving children's educational achievement, particularly in math and science. To advance the understanding in this area, we are funding school programs for very young children that explore the link between music education and math and science."

Ernest L. Boyer, President, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

"Music is a universal language, one that affirms so authentically the rich diversity of human experience across cultures. But music also unites the human family, revealing in a language all can understand profound experiences common to all. Music stimulates the mind, opens the eyes to inspired vision, and stirs the deepest yearnings of the human spirit. Music is the language of young children, and if civility is to be sustained, introduction to music in all its richness surely must be at the very heart of the core curriculum in every school."