Music

Music is an integral part of humankind. No known culture is without some aspect of artistic experience. Music is an important key to understanding our own cultural history and provides an understanding of other cultures. It is an indispensable tool to one who seeks an understanding of the past, the present, and the future. Music can provide the universal communication to overcome the barriers of language, politics, and geography.

Music Education cultivates the whole child, gradually building many kinds of literacy while developing intuition, reasoning, imagination, and dexterity into unique forms of expression and communication. There is ample evidence that the arts help students develop the attitudes, characteristics, and intellectual skills required to participate effectively in today’s society and economy. Music Education teaches self-discipline, reinforces self-esteem, and fosters the thinking skills creativity so valued in the workplace.

From preschool through grade eight, Music Education develops mental discipline through a spiraling sequence of learning experiences. It also nurtures an appreciation of music’s aesthetic qualities. At every level, the skills acquired become the means for the expression of music.

The Southampton Township Schools Music Curriculum is based on the New Jersey Student Learning Standards for Visual and Performing Arts:

Standard 1.1 The Creative Process: 
All students will demonstrate an understanding of the elements and principles that govern the creation of works of art in dance, music, theater, and visual art.

Standard 1.2 History of the Arts and Culture: 
All students will understand the role, development, and influence of the arts throughout history and across cultures.

Standard 1.3 Performance: 
All students will synthesize those skills, media, methods, and technologies appropriate to creating, performing, and/or presenting works of art in dance, music, theater, and visual art.

Standard 1.4 Aesthetic Responses & Critique Methodologies:
All students will demonstrate and apply an understanding of arts philosophies, judgment, and analysis to works of art in dance, music, theater, and visual art.