Thought for the day!

Someone left this in my box at school. I liked it so much that I thought I'd share it with you! :)

Music is Science . . . It demands exact acoustics.
Music is Mathematical . . . It is rhythmically based on the subdivision of time in space into fractions.
Music is Foreign Language . . .a highly developed kind of shorthand.
Music is History . . .reflecting the environment and times of its creation.
Music is Physical Education . . .It requires fantastic coordination of fingers, hands, arms, lip, cheek, and facial muscles, in addition to extraordinary control of the diaphragm, back, stomach and chest muscles, which must respond instantly to the sounds the ears hear and the mind interprets.

Music is all of these things, but most of all, music is art . . . That is why we make music. Not because we expect to major in music, not because we expect to play music all our lives, not so we can relax, not so we can have fun . . .but so we will be human and sensitive, so we will be closer to an Infinite beyond our world, so that we'll have something to cling to, so that we will have more love, more compassion, more gentleness, more good . . .in short, more life.

What a wonderful way to describe the purpose of music education in our schools! It seems like music teachers are always having to justify what we do and show how it supports the "real" classes at school like reading, math and science. Music does those things, but so much more. Another quote I recently read said, "It's important to get an education - not so much to make a living, but to make a life." I can't imagine my life without music and I strive each day to help my students discover their need for music as well. I hope they will see that . . . maybe not now, but someday.