Fellow Drummers, I Need Your Help!

Have you signed the petition to Support Music Education?

If not, please sign the petition here.

I am a fellow drummer.

That is why I am reaching out to you to help support music education in 2010!

You see, lots of people know about the benefits of music education.

Yet, only a precious few individuals take real action to support it.

This year, I set the goal of getting 1,000,000 people to sign a petition supporting music education.

To learn more about this campaign, click here.

This campaign needs you!

With your help, together we can:

• Continue to put instruments into the music education programs that need them most
• Make music education mandatory in all schools for grades K-12
• And so much more!

This is a fantastic opportunity and every person counts.

Remember, this only takes a small amount of your time. Don't hesitate!

Please sign the petition here

I do not know how to say this without attracting a lot of dissonant posts. But, isn’t this a little out of proportion?



I know that many musicians feel that music is the most important thing to a well rounded education, but music is entertainment. Musicians make money by playing music, teaching music, repairing and manufacturing musical instruments. So of course, professionals who make money from music would be interested in seeing the government support musical education. Can we just step back a bit here?

There are many benefits to studying music that can not be denied. Some of the benefits are that individuals do better in math, logic, language skills, and spatial thinking. However, with budget cuts and the decreasing performance scholastically of the U.S. schools, I think there are more important ways to spend the rare education dollars needed to help the next generation compete in the world. Our children need to learn how to make a living on their own, and it does or does not necessarily mean a musical career.

Math, science, writing, social studies, and physical education are just some of the subjects more important than music study. Some people feel that without religion there would be no morality in our society. But, people have the ability to worship or not to worship as they choose, and they provide specific religious studies to their children as they feel it is necessary. Many immigrants to the U.S. have their children learn the languages of the ancestors in after school activities because they feel that this is most important to their education. People have the ability to study music as they wish outside of mainstream education. Let the local school boards decide to have or have not a musical program, not to make it a mandatory.

I hate to say it, but I'm in agreement with evolving_machine.

Without going into a big diatribe, I believe the music education machine is a little broken after having been a part of the high school music/vocal education "scene" here in Southern California, so I'm not sure pumping more money into it is going to help it crank out more kids who stay interested in music and actually have a career in it.

And, I think we have a federal government that's elbowing its way into alot of things it's not good at. Having the fed pump money into the arts doesn't sound like its going to help, either.

And I endeavored in college to become a professional musician, and even became one for sometime where that's all I did for a living. Now, as an observer on the outside, I can look at that system objectively and see where it didn't help me at all. Sorry.

make in mandatory? wouldn't that be the same as not putting money in it?

your gonna try and get more money to buy instruments and force them on people who don't want them. i bet thats going to make so many more great musicians, now if you want money for after school classes or make them optional as art credits fine, let those who have an interest in it pursue it, those that don't can peruse what they ARE interested in...

my kid wants to take music lessons i think i would just as soon find a good teacher and let him take lessons and pay for it out of my own pocket before i would give money to a school to hire 'music' teachers like the ones that i had in school, not much more ability then the students, arrogant, 5 minutes into the first classes kickiing kids out for no musical ability, biggest credit to their education was their 1 year degree from a community college in playing the recorder...... that was probably just my school, but as much as i love music i hated taking that class, yep thats the exact experience i want for my kid....