URGENT: Elementary Scheduling and Music Cuts: Information, Issues, Background, Survey

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(Provide name, email address, and phone.)

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What's going on with music in Gilbert?

• Why does elementary music need more time?
• Potential Reduction to Elementary Music
• History of Band in Gilbert (By Phil Hatler)
• Success Story: Parents, Students, Administration and School Board Working Together in 2009
• State Budget Crisis and School Funding
• Gilbert Music Programs in Action (Web Sites, Pix, Video)

Gilbert Music News and Events

• NEW: Campo Verde House of Jams - Family Music Festival on April 24
• Mesquite High orchestra to play at Carnegie Hall
• Highland High School Jazz Festival
• Mesquite High violinist to appear in concert
• Mesquite's Symphonic Strings Get's Carnegie Nod
• Highland Band takes top spot in state

Highland Jazz (East Valley Tribune)
Jazz Festival: March 26-27

Web Sites of Interest/Merits of Music Education:

Benefits of Music (Academic, Developmental, Etc.)

• Music Education’s Effect on Academic Achievement
• Benefits of Music Study
• Music Helps Math (Channel 12 Story)
• School Music Inspires Prodigies (Channel 12 Story)
• Research finds brain link for words, music ability
• Music on the brain
• YouTube Video: Music Inspires Us
• Study: Arts education has academic effect
• Research Briefs: Merits of Music Education
• Music Advocacy's Top Ten Quotes
• Music and the Brain
• Playing along with the Mozart effect
• Think Twice Before Cutting K-12 Music
• Music Aptitude: Use It or Loose It!
• Pull-out Programs Study
• Project Zero - Reviewing Education and the Arts (REAP)
• Music is Multi-Disciplinary:
  Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning
  Howard Gardner - Multiple Intelligences

Advocacy

• AMEA Music Advocacy
• SupportMusic.com
• MENC.org - (Advocacy)
• VH1 Save the Music
• Importance of Elementary Music in Gilbert (PDF)
• Why does elementary music need more time?
• Justification for Elementary and Secondary School Music Programs
• School Music Matters
• Arizona Music Educator's Association

Music Education Standards and Policy

• Music Education Standards (MENC)
• National Standards for Music Education
• Advocacy and Public Policy Resources
• August 2009 Letter From the Secretary of Education
• Tom Horne Position on Arts Education

Please take a few minutes to fill out our online survey regarding elementary music and scheduling:

http://survey.gilbertmusicmatters.com

A program now under consideration will reduce instructional time for elementary band and strings programs by as much as 38%.

Click here for more information on Elementary Music scheduling and proposed cuts.

Email for School Board: board@Gilbert.k12.az.us

"For our society to move forward, for our culture to survive, fine arts education must remain strong. We already know that kids who study music do better in physics and math. Teaching the fine arts is a rounding of the whole development of the student." Representative Rob Eissler, House Public Education Committee Chair

Arts are an essential part of every student's education. Studies show that students who study the arts score higher on academic test than students not exposed to the arts. The Department of Education needs to ensure that schools have not neglected the arts in order to emphasize the tested subject areas of reading, writing and math." Tom Horne, Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction

Highland Drumline

"If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music." Albert Einstein

Highland Orchestra at Carnegie Hall

"The problem is not that we aim too high and fail, but that we aim too low and succeed." Anonymous

"I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.” John Adams

Contacts and Resources in Gilbert and Arizona

• Gilbert School Board
• Gilbert Education Foundation
• PLAN (Parents Legislative Action Network in Gilbert)
• GPS Volunteer Network
• Thoughts of a Gilbert Music Alumni
• Arizona Citizens for the Arts
• Metro Phoenix Partnership for Arts and Culture

To suggest additional ideas or information, send an email to jason@jasonbarney.com.