In this essay, I am going to be looking into whether or not music should be compulsory in Secondary Schools. I will be looking at the benefits of music on the development of the brain,whether there is a correlation to maths as well as how music helps behaviour and mental health. To further evaluate my question I am going to suggest that both music and physical education should be compulsory until the end of Key Stage 4 (KS4). The National Curriculum currently states that in KS4, age 14 – 16 (school years 10 – 11) the core subjects, English, Mathematics and Science are compulsory and in the foundation subjects Citizenship, Computing, Physical Education, religious education and sex and relationship education are compulsory, where as all other subjects, including music are not compulsory.
I chose this question because I am musical, enjoy music and have personally found it very beneficial. Using secondary research, I am going to be exploring reasons as to why music education may be considered beneficial and not beneficial in secondary schools I will also be explaining the primary research I carried out from students and teachers in the form of two different questionnaires to get various perspectives. The reason why I think this question will be interesting and is topical at this time is because recently there was an article in the news about how a radical music programme was introduced to a primary school helping to improve the behaviour and other factors of the school children. “Music improves mental health and behavioural issues. And it’s hugely effective with conditions such as autism, ADHD and dyslexia.” Jenkins, E and Watson, M (2018) It is very reliable as written by the music teacher of the primary school where the research was conducted. Also it was published this year so is recent increasing the reliability. I also want to see if this can be transferred into secondary schools but focusing more on the benefits for the brain and learning as well as mental health.
One point of view is that music should not be compulsory in secondary schools up to the age of 16 or maybe not at all. This is supported by several sources I found in my research. The main reasons are because it doesn’t necessarily help with core subjects such as maths, that it is only beneficial in younger years when the brain is still properly developing and that it depends on the sort of music education that is provided. One source suggests that “Many musicians are great without any maths expertise, and many great mathematicians do not have the best musician abilities either.” Periodical Science Blog, (2018) This is from a periodical which suggests it is quite reliable. It was published in May suggesting any research was recent and so is more reliable. This suggests that although music may help with the core subject of maths it is not always true and that many people who are good at maths are not necessarily good at music. In another source I found in my research it suggests that only “[…] when children are trained in music at a young age, they tend to improve in their maths skills.” Serendip Studio, (2008) It has similar research to other sources I have used suggesting it is quite reliable, however it was written ten years ago which might make it less credible. This seems to suggest that music is good for children and should therefore be compulsory; however this is talking mainly about young children rather than teenagers. This suggests that although music is beneficial it may not be as beneficial in secondary schools as it would in primary schools. Another source suggests that any benefit depends on the type of music education that is offered as “[…] students scored significantly better in math than students in groups that received traditional music instruction.” Hopkins, G (2003 updated 2015) It is quite reliable as has similar evidence to other sources, however it is slightly biased as it is trying to encourage music education to stay in the curriculum. It was written 15 years ago so evidence may have been updated since then making it less credible. This again on the surface suggests that music is beneficial but maybe not so beneficial if offered as traditional music instruction. This then brings in the question of what sort of music education would be beneficial or would a continuation of the music education students receive at Key Stage 3 actually be no use at all.
My primary research consisted of two questionnaires and was sent to pupils at The Brentwood School and to teachers at and outside of Brentwood. In my primary research, the majority of responses from the 188 students that filled in my questionnaire disagreed that music should be compulsory in secondary schools up to the age of 16, with 62.8% of students saying that it shouldn’t be compulsory. This was quite surprising considering just over 70% of the students used to, do or will have music lessons. A further 32.9% of students did, are doing or will or might do GCSE music. Compared to 87.7% of students who used to or are in sports teams, although only 44.6% of the students might, did, are or will do GCSE Sport. Only 1% of students haven’t always had to do compulsory physical education throughout school life. Just over 35% (37.8%) of students thought that music was as important as sport. With only 4.8% thinking it is more important than sport and the majority (53.2%) thinking sport was more important than music.
The general answer is illustrated by the pie chart below:
In the questionnaire that 13 teachers from various subjects completed, 46.2% of them felt that it would not be beneficial for students to participate in compulsory music education up to the age of 16. 69.2% of the teachers thought that music was as important as sport and 23.1% thought that music was more important than sport, only 7.7% thought music was less important than sport. 53.8% of the teachers thought that music should not be compulsory in secondary schools up to the age of 16 like physical education, only 30.8% agreed that music should be compulsory up to the age of 16. The general answer is illustrated by the pie chart below:
On the other hand some think that, music should be compulsory in secondary schools past 14 years old into KS4 as is PE although not as a GCSE subject just as a lesson or two a fortnight to relax during students busy and stressful lives. There is a lot of evidence that shows how music can help the brain because it links both hemispheres of the brain. This is very important for the development of the brain. There are direct comparisons of music being as important as sport, for example “Playing music is the brains equivalent of a full body workout.” (TED-Ed. (2014) This research is extremely reliable because it is produced by TED Ed a very trustworthy company. The author Anita Collins is a University professor specialising in neuroscience and music. Also it was published 4 years ago so is relatively up to date suggesting it is one of my most reliable sources. There is other evidence suggesting that studying music is beneficial because of the number of benefits it has particularly cognitive including “[…] greater attention span, increased ability in geometrical skills, improved performance in mathematical problem solving and spatial tasks, heightened fluency in reading and greater short-term and long-term memory.” Saunders, L. (2017) This book was published just over a year ago which suggests it is quite reliable, it mainly concentrates on the benefits in education and the author is a music teacher so may be a bit biased. Although it is based on American schools and statistics it is also quite transferable and relevant to education in Britain as well.
Although many of the benefits are greater if music is started at a younger age, music education is compulsory at all other age groups meaning the benefits would be further enhanced as it is started from a young age. However if we do not continue music education up to the age of 14, as many schools do not, (because academies and several other schools do not have to follow the national curriculum or find ways around it), students are not getting the best education to be able to make informed decisions about music education beyond 14. A University of Sussex study based on 464 schools in England found that “Music in year 9 is compulsory in only 47.5% of those schools. It is optional in 48.4%, and the rest offer no music provision.” University of Sussex, (2018) This source is highly reliable as it is from a University study following previous studies carried out. Also it has a large sample size suggesting the results it has are a wider and fairer generalisation of the trends within English secondary schools. Having only been published a couple of months ago it is recent research making it highly reliable. It also found that “An increasing number of schools have reduced or completely removed music in the curriculum for year 7 students.” This is one of the problems and along with funding cuts means numbers of students doing music GCSE is low and at A-level even lower. As a result the number of students going into the music industry is getting smaller. So there is fear that the industry will eventually fizzle out and being such a big and popular industry that brings so much enjoyment this could be terrible. If this is because students couldn’t make informed decisions about studying music at GCSE and A Level because they hadn’t had the best music education in secondary schools, would making it compulsory really be that bad if it could potentially save a very large industry?
Before being able to fully answer this question we need to consider the type of music education that would be most beneficial for the students. We also need to think about funding and the amount of money it costs to learn an instrument and how this means it may not be accessible to all students.
I think that music should be compulsory in secondary schools because of the number of benefits it brings. I think that music should be made compulsory in all schools until at least the age of 14 as the national curriculum states. But I personally think that music should also be compulsory up until the age of 16 (so during KS4) as is physical education. I think this even though timetables are already very busy, music is as important as sport and so therefore should be treated in the same way. Neither should be at the expense of the other, sport is important as it helps to keep children healthy and fit as well as developing coordination and stamina, music is important because it helps the brain to develop and improves cognitive skills and offers the soft skills that are so important. As Jack Ma says we need to teach things that robots will never be able to catch humans up with such as these soft skills including music TEAM MUSIC, (2018). Furthermore it will be good for students in such important and stressful years of school to have a subject that they know they can relax in and have no pressure from. From my research I believe that yes, music should be compulsory in secondary schools all the way up until the age of 16 because of the number of valuable benefits it brings.