Music Is More Than Entertainment

To the Editor:

I was disappointed to read in The Bee of the superintendent’s proposal to remove a district level music position for the 2012-2013 recommended budget in light of last week’s outstanding band concert consisting of over 400 student musicians from the sixth, seventh, and high school level grades. It was a joy to witness the standing-room-only NHS auditorium filled with parents and family members eager to support their children’s efforts to perform. Miss Hiscavich, director of music for Newtown Public Schools, and Band Directors Beierle, Nolte, Ianello and Eckhardt are to be thanked for a well-organized concert.

It is perplexing to learn that the Department of Music that has served so well the needs of so many students participating in band, orchestra, chorus, musical theater, Marching Band, and Jazz Band is being tampered with. There is increasing scientific research supporting the psychosocial benefit of learning to read music and play an instrument, or sing, at an early age. This advantage for development should be valued as equal to other areas of learning, such as science and mathematics. We need to move beyond thinking of music as a form of entertainment and see it as an educational tool with which to develop the brain. I ask the superintendent and the Board of Education not make staff reductions to the Department of Music.

Respectfully submitted,

Melinda Reynolds

19 Cemetery Road, Newtown                                   January 25, 2012