In my experience of being a student in music for 15 years, music has been the most impactful part of my life for as long as I can remember. Music is about connection to those around you, which is something that in the modern day can be extremely difficult for students.

I was always the music nerd of my class. I stayed after four hours everyday of high school just going through the choral library at my school and reading the sheet music. Sometimes, I would even get sticky fingers and take some pieces home with me to record myself on each part to make a choir of Lia's! At the time, I thought it was just fun. But as I grew older, and learned more about music, I grew such a deep passion for it that doing things like this were almost impulsive: it became a need in my life. And that need led me to music education.

Music is something that is completely unique to humans, and therefore should be taught in schools. Having music education in school systems benefits students in so many different ways such as giving them an emotional outlet, providing them community, uplifting them in artistry, giving them purpose throughout school, giving them discipline through punctuality and preparedness, allowing them to have personal and meaningful connections with their teachers, giving them scholarship opportunities for college, and many more reasons. However, I understand that these reasons are some that students can get through other school subjects and extracurriculars, so I will make an argument that can’t be made for anything else but music.

Every single country in the entire world has a different origin story. We have different cultures, different deities we typically believe in, different architecture, languages, history, food, and many other things. But one thing that humans from all cultures and all parts of the world all have in common is music. Even before there was a lot of communication between countries or travel, music existed within these cultures, which means music innately exists within us. Allowing a student to tap into that truly and truly providing access to learning about it can open their minds and hearts to so many things.

My choir director once told me teaching music is not just about teaching music, but that it’s about teaching people how to be better people. I believe by performing pieces from these cultures and by learning music as a universal language, students become better and more empathetic people.

Lia Vittone

Music Educator