[Editor’s Note: The article below is from NAfME. MACT encourages you to contact your schools’ administration and school board to show your support for arts in our schools and stress the importance of the arts, and especially music, to a well-rounded education. Contact from community members does make a difference when budget time comes around. While STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) is important, adding art heats up the education process by making STEAM!]
For more than 40 years, March has been officially designated by the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) for the observance of Music In Our Schools Month® (MIOSM®), the time of year when music education becomes the focus of schools and communities across the nation.
The purpose of MIOSM is to raise awareness of the importance of music education for all children—and to remind citizens that school is where all children should have access to music. MIOSM is an opportunity for music teachers to bring their music programs to the attention of the school and the community, and to display the value that school music brings to students of all ages.
MIOSM and the events surrounding it are the ideal opportunities for increasing awareness of the benefits of high-quality music education programs in our nation’s schools. NAfME hopes that teachers, students, and music supporters alike will find ways to join the celebration through creative activities and advocacy.
Click here to view the NAfME Music in our Schools® month page.
The positive impact of music education in the lives of students lasts a lifetime. Therefore, ensuring equitable access to music education for the youngest members of our society—students—is paramount.
Every day, in classrooms and rehearsal rooms across our school districts, music educators dedicate themselves to reaching all students with life-changing musical experiences. Parents, administrators, and the wider community often only see the wonderful results of music performances; however, we miss the months of practice and rehearsals and more importantly the learning process that takes place to make it all happen.
We encourage members in our community to acknowledge and celebrate music education as an essential part of every student’s educational journey.
We encourage you to let your local school administrators and school board members know that you support a well rounded arts education and believe that it is important. Many studies have shown the relationship between music education and higher test score, better attendance and other benefits of a music education. Letting your administrators and school board members know that there is support for a well rounded arts education does have an effect on their decisions.