Request for help

Dear Music Parents,

Thank you all for your support of music and arts in education during this time. Please see the below open letter from Dr. Amy Bovin, President of CMEA (Connecticut Music Educators Association). If after reading you are so moved, please consider sending a brief email in support of music and art in our schools to reopen@ct.gov (which is the email address for feedback to the reopen Connecticut Advisory Group advising the governor). While athletics has a representative on the council, the arts and arts education organizations have been left off, and many of us are concerned about the future of art and music education in our schools.

Thank you for your time and consideration and support. I miss working with the students in person terribly.

Mr. Akter

To Governor Lamont, Mr. Ojakian, and members of the Reopen Connecticut Advisory Group,

My name is Amy J. Bovin and I am the President of Connecticut Music Educators Association (CMEA), the state affiliate of The National Association for Music Education (NAfME). CMEA is the largest current arts education association in Connecticut. We provide professional support for our members across the state and beneficial activities for our many students.

I first would like to thank you all for taking the time today to address the public. Though these are difficult and unusual times for us all, the transparency of your discussions shows your commitment to ensuring that any decisions made will be in the best interest of the people of Connecticut. I further thank you for the work that you have already done and the decisions that have already been made with the intent of safety and wellbeing of all people of all demographics in our state. 

Along those lines, I write today on behalf of all music educators and all music students in the State of Connecticut with great concern over the future of music education in our state. This concern stems from reports across the nation of what the school year potentially will look like in the Fall. Music is amongst those subjects which have been on the forefront of discussion to be diminished or removed from the curriculum given the situation we are all facing from COVID-19. The purpose of the remainder of this message is two-fold: (1) to ensure that music education remain a part of the curricula of all schools in all districts across the state of Connecticut, and (2) to urge you to include a member of one of the art councils on the Reopen Connecticut Advisory Group so that we become and remain a part of the discussion to safely reopen our state. Given the amount of work that needs to be done and the urgency of the above requests, I will keep the remainder of this email as short and direct as possible. 

The 11 members of the Reopen Connecticut Advisory Group each have an essential role given their titles and backgrounds. I am glad to see that almost all aspects of education are represented on this council from administrators to teachers, from early childhood education to collegiate, from athletics to health. I respect all voices which are currently on the board and trust that those individuals will be able to provide our state with proper advice and appropriate direction. That being said, it is disappointing and concerning to see that the arts are not represented. The arts need to be included in the aforementioned aspects of education which are already spoken for on the council in order to ensure that students in Connecticut will receive an appropriate education of music should any changes need to be made to schooling in our state due to the concerns of safety surrounding COVID-19. 

According to a report from NAfME (2014) music education leads to numerous benefits for students of all ages and backgrounds, all of which can be applied to courses outside of the arts and to skills needed to become essential members of society post a pre-K to 12 education. These reasons are why music education is and needs to remain to be a crucial component of the school curriculum in all districts and at all levels. For the purposes of this email, I highlight the following below and direct you to https://nafme.org/20-important-benefits-of-music-in-our-schools/ for further information on the benefits of music education. 

(1) Development of language and reasoning due to the areas of the brain music learning affects. 

(2) Mastery of memorization and a sense of discipline due to the many skills needed in the practice and performance of music. 

(3) A recognition of the need to as well as a desire to improve one's work due to the knowledge that great work is more rewarding than mediocre. 

(4) Increased hand-eye coordination, motor-skills, and auditory skills due to the techniques and skills needed to play a musical instrument, sing in a choir, and/or participate in any type of music course

(5) A sense of achievement due to mastering goals at any level and to any degree and through learning how to take responsible risks and push through such barriers as fear and anxiety to achieve one's goals. 

(6) A continued engagement in school due to the overall enjoyment and high interest of the subject of music and of students' music classes.

(7) Success in society due to music's ability to shape character, build self-confidence, develop creative thinking, and contribute to a child's overall intellectual development.  

(8) Development of emotional intelligence through the creation of empathy of all cultures and the self esteem of the individual and development of spatial intelligence which provides students with the ability to perceive the world more accurately than they would without a music education. 

(9) Development of pattern recognition through the repetition of music and techniques used throughout music education and music classes. 

(10) Ability to achieve higher scores on the SATs and other standardized tests due to results of previous studies which have found a correlation between a student's involvement in music and high scores on standardized assessments. 

The previously listed items are only the beginning of the numerous benefits music education has on the student. These listed and non-listed benefits are the reasons why music education needs to remain in all curricula across the state and thus needs to be an essential element of the discussions to reopen our state. 

That being said, we recognize that given the concerns over safety from COVID-19, music classes, as with all elements of schooling, might need to be altered in order to create the safest environment possible for our students. For this purpose, we feel that it is not only essential for music education to be part of the discussion, but that there be a member of an arts council on the Reopen Connecticut Advisory Group. Similar to how each member already chosen is there to provide expert advice for a specific aspect of education, a member of an arts education group will be able to provide their expertise in the realm of the arts to ensure that students in Connecticut will continue to receive a high quality arts education in whichever school they attend in our state. 

Therefore, in addition to keeping music education in our schools this Fall, we recommend that you offer an invitation to the President of one or more of the following statewide organizations:

Connecticut Arts Administrators Association, Dee Hansen, President

CT Alliance for Arts Education, John Prins, Executive Director

Connecticut Art Education Association, Maureen Berescik, President

Connecticut Music Educators Association, Amy Bovin, President

I thank you for your time in reading this today and for addressing the concerns of Connecticut music educators, music students, and music parents/guardians. I hope that you will address our concerns to keep music education a part of the curriculum this Fall and to add a member of a Connecticut Arts Organization to the Reopen Connecticut Advisory Group. 

On behalf of all music teachers and students, we thank you for your hard work in providing our state advice and direction at this time,

Amy J. Bovin, Ph.D. 

President, Connecticut Music Educators Association