- Reading passage
School districts across the country are finding it difficult to acquire adequate funding during these tough economic times. As a conseqence, cities are making the tough but inevitable decision to cut certain programs, and among these are instrumental music programs. Although cutting music classes from the curriculum is unfortunate, these classes aren't really necessary.
For one thing, instrumental music classes reduce the amount of time students have to spend on other more important subjects, like mathematics and language. Virtually every career requires proficiency in one or both of these two fundamental areas. Therefore, it is more practical for students to become proficient in these useful subjects than to concentrate on learning music.
Secondly, these music programs are too costly because they require expensive instruments. Most classes just require a textbook for each student, but for music classes, students need things like violins, pianos, and trumpets. If we consider the cost of instruments against the value of what the students learn, it simply is not worth the investment.
In addition to that, not every student has the talent to be a successful musician, so it is unrealistic to expect them to get much in return for their efforts. Also, the number of students who go to practice music in adulthood is very small. As a result, most of them will forget what they learned and never derive a benefit from their musical training.
- Listening Script
It seems that every time there's an issue of money, it's the arts that suffer the most. And the most recent incarnation of this is a plan to get rid oif instrumental music classes. Some people say these classes aren't necessary, but I think they're essential to providing a full and balanced education.
To start with, learning how to play a musical instrument is very helpful for picking up other subjects, um, like math and language. See, musical notes are abstract symbols just like fractions in mathematics. A strong command of musical notation can reinforce abstract thinking skills learned in math class. And students of music learn to distinguish minute differences in sound, and this is a great skill to have for understanding spoken language.
And although music classes can be expensive, schools are thinking of ways to save money. For example, they are recruiting volunteer teachers who are willing to teach students for free. And they are increasing efforts to get people to donate instruments or sell them to schools at a very low price. There are lots of people with old instruments lying around that never even get used, so I think we can find enough instruments for classroom needs.
The last thing is that even though not every student goes on to become a professional musician, learning to play a musical instrument is highly rewarding. It enriches students' lives and allows them to express themselves in new and creative ways. And who knows? A young student who may not seem talented at first may get truly inspired, and could one day be the next Beethoven or Mozart!
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