Why is it that we are required to learn a foreign language in high school and college?  In my personal experience, I’ve never had a practical use for the languages I’ve learned and have focused more on the things that I am interested in pursuing.  Like music.  Music is very relevant to my life, it is one of my passions.  So why is it that my passion, the passion of hundreds of thousands of people, isn’t deemed necessary for our education?  I remember back in elementary school it was, but only for fourth grade.  Isn’t music a language?  In fact, isn’t it a much more universal language than any spoken/written language on this planet?

The language of music is abstract of course, well for the most part.  Music can convey both lofty ideals and passionate emotion.  Is this then the reason why we aren’t “forced” to engage in its performance and study?  Because it isn’t practical in our daily lives?  One might argue that the only practical reason why we should be required to study music would be for the ability to talk about music in certain situations.  One might limit the language of music to the realm of music itself.  But then I would ask, what good is Chinese language in a neighborhood that doesn’t speak it?  Isn’t foreign language limited by the same constraints?

Music should be a requirement.  I mean if we want to produce well-rounded students, I can’t think of any better way to top it off than with some good classical training.  And not just a music history class; that might be fun, but come on.  We should be performing, even if we drop it like so many of us do with our foreign language requirements once we are done.

In relationship to the broader theme of this blog, requiring music in our education would give us another lens through which to look at the world.  It would give us another way to construct narrative and emotion and philosophy.  It might even give us spiritual enlightenment as we contemplate the echoes of our universe’s birth.  In the words of Hans Christian Andersen, “Where words fail, music speaks.”

“Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything.”
[Plato]

Teaching music is not my main purpose. I want to make good citizens. If children hear fine music from the day of their birth and learn to play it, they develop sensitivity, discipline and endurance. They get a beautiful heart.

[Shinichi Suzuki]

Music is the harmonious voice of creation; an echo of the invisible world.

[Giuseppe Mazzini]