- Music is worth knowing.
- Music is one of the most important manifestations of our cultural heritage. Children need to know about Beethoven and Louis Armstrong as well as about Newton and Einstein.
- Music is a potential in every individual that, like all potential, should be developed to its fullest.
- Music provides an outlet for creativity, self-expression, and individual uniqueness. It enables us to express our noblest thoughts and feelings.
- Music teaches students about unique aspects of their relationships with other human beings and with the world around them, in their own and other cultures.
- Music opens avenues of success for students who may have problems in other areas of the curriculum and opens approaches to learning that can be applied in other contexts.
- Studying music increases the satisfaction students derive from music by sharpening sensitivity, raising their level of appreciation, and expanding their musical horizons.
- Music is one of the most powerful and profound symbol systems that exists.
- Music helps students learn a significant lesson–that not all aspects of life are quantifiable.
- Music exalts the human spirit.
Adapted from The School Music Program: Description and Standards, Music Educators National Conference, 2nd ed., 1987