Scott Lamar:
The number of schools offering music education in Pennsylvania and the nation, is in a steady decline and has been for more than a decade. Reduced budgets and shifting priorities are often to blame. Music For Everyone is a Lancaster based nonprofit working to raise awareness and resources to strengthen the role that music plays in schools and the community in the face of declining music programs.
Music For Everyone has provided over 6,000 instruments to Lancaster country schools since 2006, and there's a lot more going on there. Joining us is Dr. John Gerdy, who is the founder and executive director of Music For Everyone. Dr. Gerdy, welcome to the program.
John Gerdy:
Great to be here.
Scott Lamar:
Dr. John Gerdy, before we get into the current situation across the country, and across Pennsylvania, and in Lancaster County of music programs in schools, I think that your background and how Music For Everyone was founded and developed says a whole lot. You were an athlete. I don't know if you still are or not.
John Gerdy:
Not so much.
Scott Lamar:
You were an All American basketball player at Davidson College. You were the schools leading scorer until someone by the name of Steph Curry came along. Played pro basketball for three years. You would seem to be someone that would advocate strongly for athletics in schools, but yet, music is your passion and helping schools to ... I don't want to say maintain, but maintain in some areas, but further expand their music programs in others. How did it all come to be?
John Gerdy:
Well, I mean, you talk about my passion really is education. Education reform. It's preparing our children to compete in the global integrated world economy, and world community of the future. Education is my passion. After playing basketball, I ended up working in college athletics at the NCAA, and as the associate commissioner of the Southeastern Conference. I always did that because I viewed athletics as a tool to supplement the educational process if it's kept in the proper perspective.
With the birth of our first child, I left the SCC and was a stay at home parent for two children. As the kids got older, they didn't need dad around as much anymore. I had this wonderful opportunity to reinvent myself. I could've gone back into college athletics, but you know, been there done that. As a lifelong musician, I started doing the research on school music programs are being but, and underfunding, defunded. At the same time, all the research about how effective it is an educational and community building tool, and it just didn't' make sense to me.
You know, trying to think on acting, you know, on the notion of think globally, act locally, I got some friends together, did a small fundraiser. We raised about $11,000 and bought some instruments for the school district of Lancaster. It just kind of ... be careful what you ask you. It just kind of mushroomed. To me, it's not much of a jump because similar to athletics, which is a tool to supplement the educational process, if it's conducted in the right way, music is the same. It's a tool to contribute to the educational process.
I've come to the realization or belief, after being involved very heavily in both, as an athlete, or a musician, or as an administrator in both ends, that music, if you do a thorough honest clear eye data-driven return on educational investment, in dollars spent on, for example, football, tackle football, versus music programs, it's not very close. If you were keeping score, like a football game, you know, the score would be 55 for music and 20 for football. It's just that effective, right on down the line. Everything from the currency of the future's creativity. A lot of the jobs our children are going to have in the future, haven't even been invented yet. Music is the most effective tool in our educational arsenal to teach creativity.
Scott Lamar:
How do you measure that?
John Gerdy:
Music, at its core, music is about creativity. It's about thinking out of the box. Arts are about being able to color outside the lines without penalty. If you look at a number of other things as well, you look at lifelong learning. One of the most important functions of our schools is to develop and nurture in our children a love of lifelong learning. If you compare football, for example, versus music, 99% of the kid's last football game they play is the last time they'll ever play football.
But music, you can play it until, you know, your last days. In terms of lifelong learning, it's so much more effective. Just a mere fact that half of the student population, I mean in girls, can't play football, for example. Everyone can play music. Music is math. Music is reading. Music is logic. Music is a language. The data backs all that up. Every single day it seems there's a new study coming out about how music programs, involved in music programs, enhances these academic skills and interpersonal skills. The other thing is, you know, you talk about one of the major justifications for sports in our schools is that it teaches this concept of building character, teamwork, discipline, communication skills, personal responsibility. Well, you know, and it's true.
I've been on a five-person basketball team and being required to develop those types of skills, communication skills, discipline, teamwork, all those kinds of things, in pursuit of a common goal, which is winning, okay? But I've also been in a five-person band, trying to work together to achieve a common sound and it's the exact same things, discipline, teamwork, communication skills, personal responsibility. If you really take a close honest look at the data, the return on educational dollars invested in music is tremendous.
A lot of people talk about, is music a core course? Is it core? Is it co-curricular? Is it extracurricular? I kind of view it differently because of the universal nature of music, it's a universal language. I think music is more like the glue that can hold the entire core curriculum together. You can use music and apply it, and use it to teach science lessons, history lessons. Music is math. All of those things. The value of music as an educational tool is just astounding. The data coming out every single day reinforces that point.
Scott Lamar:
Most educators, maybe I shouldn't say most. I won't make a judgment there, but I would say many educators would agree with you with what you just said. But yet, if they said, "All right, we're going to cut ... we have a tight budget here and we have to cut some extracurricular activities." If they said we were going to cut the football program, or in some way cut back on that, compared to the music program, and not cut any funding from the music program, they would have people up in arms.
John Gerdy:
Yes, they would. That's something that I think as a ...
Scott Lamar:
By the way, I'm not saying that's right. I'm just saying, yeah, just an observation.
John Gerdy:
No, well, first of all, the football or athletics lobby, for a lack of a better term, is very well organized, very vocal. The music and arts community isn't quite as effective in its advocacy. I do think a lot of that is changing, particularly on the football side, driven by the, you know, revelations about head trauma. I think we're slowly changing. Again, we simply ... educational leaders and community leaders, we simply cannot continue to fund programs simply because we've always done it that way.
The world is changing too rapidly. We have to look at the data, look at the research, and ask an honest question, what is more effective, in terms of educational return on investment. We're operating ... the expectations of our schools and our teachers to instill in our children an education worthy of the 21st century, are rising dramatically. At the same time, in an environment of declining resources. That begs the question, we have to be more effective and efficient with every single educational dollar we spend. If you're honest about looking at it, take an honest look at it, the data is just irrefutable about how effective music is.
Scott Lamar:
You know, let me get back. I mean, we were kind of talking the broad picture about music, and athletics, extracurricular activities, but we didn't talk specifically about what Music for Everyone does.
John Gerdy:
