Music in the Classroom: Should Students Be Allowed to listen to Music During Class?
“Music education can help spark a child’s imagination or ignite a lifetime of passion. When you provide a child with new worlds to explore and challenges to tackle, the possibilities are endless. Music education should not be a privilege for a lucky few; it should be a part of every child’s world of possibility.”
– Hillary Clinton
Deciding whether or not students should be allowed to listen to music is a rather interesting debate. For some students’ music can help them concentrate, and for others, it can be distracting. When talking to students and teachers, you find people on both ends of the spectrum. There are a few factors to understand when determining whether or not listening to music in the classroom is helpful.
It’s circumstantial. Firstly, the task that is being completed is very important. Naturally, a student won’t be able to focus on something like a lecture if they are also listening to music. If the task that is being performed is not very involved or doesn’t require a lot of attention, then music may not be distracting enough to complete the task. Additionally, music can possibly even help students from not getting distracted by others (and may even help them focus on the task), but it really depends on the student.
It is not unusual for some teachers to play music while students are completing work. Many students feel like music is a reward, as such music may be able to be used for positive reinforcement. Using music in creative tasks can help with memorization, retention, and recall to enhance learning. All in all, more research still needs to be done to see what the best ways to incorporate music into the classroom.