By Alexa Garcia
At the beginning of this year one of my teachers let us listen to music every day when were were given time to start our homework. A couple weeks ago, she took away that privilege because she felt we couldn’t concentrate while listening to music. Since then, my grade in their class has dropped. I feel that listening to music during class can do many things to help our education.
Listening to music during class can help students process and remember information more efficiently.
The National Association for Music Education says music can help children develop math and pattern recognition skills.
I have had several teachers in the past that have put information to song and that always helped me memorize things such as the prepositions, the distance formula, and the preamble. To this day I can still recite the prepositions and the preamble.
Music can affect and greatly affect our emotions. Listening to my favorite genres can help motivate me and set me up for a good day. Colorado State University says music can control our emotions and physiological functions and emotion because music activates our body’s autonomic nervous system.
Listening to songs while learning can distract students from feelings of boredom and tiredness during school. The John Hopkins School of Education says including music in school can make lessons more interesting and can help the student prepare to learn.
For me, listening to any music can alter my emotions or attitude about the day. Even listening to only one song can make the world a difference. Listening to music during the school day helps me concentrate and gives me the motivation to work hard.
The students’ amount of concentration can be altered for the better when listening to music.
“I have trouble focusing, a lot, so listening to music allows me to only focus on a single thing, not all of the sounds of people moving and talking around me,” said Abby Hill, a freshman at Batavia High School. “This gives me an easier time when I try to do my work.”
USA Today College says many students find it easier for them to focus when listening to music during their studies. I find it easier to focus on my work in class when I’m listening to my favorite music.
Many teachers at our school are against their students listening to music during class. They may think that music is just a distraction from their studies. But really, music has many benefits.
Listening to music during class takes your mind off of the distraction of doing homework in the same classroom with sometimes 30 antsy students. Music for me zones out all the other sounds and helps me focus on what I am trying to accomplish.
Last week I constructed a twitter poll where 50 students voted on whether they feel listening to music in class benefits them or not. It resulted in 84 percent of students replying yes and 16 percent replying no. From that, I can tell I am not the only one who feels this way about music.