What are the advantages and disadvantages of a musical education ...

families can’t afford to send them to private schools. ‘Valentine’s (1962) study, which was
discussed earlier, showed that ‘preparatory school’ children showed greater evidence of
musical acculturation than their ‘elementary school’ counterparts; this result is almost
certainly mediated by social class’ (Hargreaves, 1986, P.103). These results imply that the
reason the preparatory children showed a greater level of musical acculturation was down to
their social class.
Music can often be an expensive hobby, especially for families who have more than one
child. Musical instruments sometimes costing hundreds of pounds and lessons that now rarely
cost less than fifteen pounds for half an hour may not be affordable or accessible to all
families. This leads to the conclusion that the accusation of music causing social divides may
not be too far from the truth. Just like many other subjects within the creative arts it is now
extremely difficult to progress without some form of training, which in today’s society rarely
comes cheap. There are now bursaries and scholarships that can be awarded to talented
students who can’t afford to pay for the education required for them to progress in their art.
However these bursaries and scholarships cannot be awarded to every student; therefore, the
idea of social divides still has prominence. Due to lack of funding and resources many state
schools are not able to provide the same musical facilities as are available in private schools.
‘Children who listened to Mozart before taking a test performed better. The catch? The
effects only lasted about 20 minutes. Other research may have been skewed by socioeconomic
differences between kids who attend schools with music programs and kids whose
schools can’t afford them’ (Boyd, 2008). This quote suggests that children who listen to
Mozart before taking tests performed better but it also implies that there were recognizable
differences in children that attended schools with music programs and those that attended
schools that can’t afford them.
This point leads society to ask the question, do all children have the same opportunities when
it comes to music? What children do outside of school is really down to the parents and
society cannot really argue with that. However when it comes to music education in schools
is it fair that not all children have the same opportunities? ‘In these days, it is doubtful that
any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an
education. Such an opportunity, is a right which must be made available to all on equal
terms’ (Weintraub. Abeson, 1972). This quote from a law review written by Frederic J.
Weintraub and Alan R. Abeson outlines the fact that education is a right of all children and
should be given out equally. If all children are entitled to an equal education then perhaps
there should be greater consideration and action taken to ensure that all schools are giving
their pupils a fair and equal education in music and offering them the same musical
opportunities. In the United States it was made law that no child should have greater priority
in terms of education than any other child. ‘The Supreme Court of the United States ruled
illegal the provision of education services to any child on a basis unequal to that provided
any other child’ (Weintraub. Abeson, 1972). This quote isn’t just implying that all children
have the right to be educated but also that the services provided within education should be
equal to all children.
Music Education in Regard to Children CM6002 Emily McGregor 163930
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