Research Assessment #5

Reagan Rasmussen

ISM: Music Education

23 October 2018

WREXHAM. “The Quiet Decline of Music in British Schools.” The Economist, The Economist

Newspaper, 1 Mar. 2018, www.economist.com/britain/2018/03/01/the-quiet-decline-of-

music-in-british-schools.

Assessment:

Originally, I did not think that I would learn much from this article, and that it would end

up including the same topics that at least one of previous Research Assessment articles included.

However, by looking closer at the article, it discusses music education in a different way. For the

most part, this is because the article is written by someone from Great Britain, about British

circumstances. By reading this article, I learned that the “decline of music”, as the title suggests,

isn’t just happening in America, it is happening all over the world. The author focuses on how, in

Great Britain, music programs in public schools are declining because of their lack of money and

the increasing shift in focus towards academics. Councils that handle the financials of public

schools have to try to invent new ways to increase income, as well as cut down spending

dramatically on many services, which include music. This drastic reduction in the money spent

on music education is happening currently too, because this article was published in March of

2018, which is recent as far as history goes. Then, on the topic of schools wanting to focus more

on academics, the author mentions how an assessment of a school, “The “English Baccalaureate”

judges on the proportion of pupils who get good grades in English, maths, history or geography,

the sciences, and a language- but not the arts.” (Wrexham, 3). This goes to show me that all over
the world music education and the arts are being devalued by public education systems and

culture in general. This information allowed me to realize that the cause I am taking up, to

change students lives through music education, is not just needed domestically, within the United

States, but everywhere. The issues that this articles presents further motivate me to become a

music educator and strive towards that goal by doing that work that I am in ISM. Furthermore, it

has shifted my view outwards, away from home and perhaps my realm of comfort. After reading

this article, there are now ideas in my head about going to different places on this continent or

possibly overseas to help bring music into the lives of students that otherwise would have no

access to it. However, some questions I do have are: because the article said that poor children

are less likely to become musicians, is that strictly because of not being able to buy an

instrument? Where, specifically, is the root of the problem? Is it money or that people trying to

find enough money on a daily basis to put food on the table don’t have time to stop and think

about something as seemingly futile as music? Despite any circumstances, my opinion is that

anyone should have access to music education, and maybe I should focus on this opinion of mine

more as I decide where I want to go in the field of music education in the future.