Andrew Ricketts

Music Education in Schools

In the past couple of years, more and more school districts across the country have been removing their instrumental music programs and cutting education of the arts and music out of the programs they offer. Budget cuts and the added crutch of the present day economy has made this a very common occurrence in specifically high schools. I think this is a terrible loss for young adults of America who want to play music and learn as much about it as they can. If programs keep being cut, soon enough more and more raw talent of kids who should certainly continue with music will really be wasted.
I've been playing musical instruments since before i could walk. I played the trumpet for many years and continue to do so, I've studied and played drums in school bands from 5 years ago up through now, with drumset currently as my major course of study, and I have self taught myself to be slightly proficient on guitar and bass as well. Playing a musical instrument is such a truly unique thing that you can do. In addition to be able to do it in an ensemble is an extra special things. The students in school instrumental music programs gain so many valuable leadership skills, and lessons in working with other people and groups that go so far to help them in the future. Tons of statistics have also shown how it positively affects students grades in school, and that if they have a long committed history to a music program, it looks great on a college application too. I couldn't agree with all these claims more because for an out of state student I'm sure my musical extra activities helped me to get accepted into the schools I applied to.
A few years ago around Christmas time my parents started asking me what I wanted for gifts. I took a look around the house and really thought to myself. "I have way too much junk as it is, why do I need to get greedy and get more useless gifts just for me?" So I told my mother to spend about half the money she usually would on my gifts, and send it to VH1's Save The Music Foundation instead. I wanted to give back in someway, so every holiday season since I have sent them money to donate to a great cause of keeping music in schools. It's not worth it for some great talented young musicians to go unrecognized because they can't find an organized group of peers to play with. Also music itself is such an art form that still needs to be taught so it can be sustained through generations to come. Music education really should be kept in schools, and people need to start showing their support of these schools and a music program or music will just keep getting cut and the kids, in a sense just won't have a place to play and learn about music anymore.