Music Education Matters

2025-05-31

Music education is under attack in Regina, Saskatchewan.

Regina public elementary band programs could face cutbacks (May 20, 2025)

Regina school division CEO says there's insufficient funding to maintain band program in current form (May 30, 2025)

Click here to sign the petition to stop these cuts

When I show grade 6 kids how to use a saxophone or clarinet for the first time, one of the earliest things I get them to do is hold up their left index finger.

The number of 11-12-year-olds who can't do this instinctively might surprise you.

Playing an instrument develops motor skills.

When I have a conversation with someone, I generally understand when it makes sense to listen, and when to answer or interject. Listening is a learned skill.

Playing an instrument requires the ability to listen and interpret sounds and immediately know how to react.

There are dozens of scientific studies showing the links between playing music and memory, reading ability, executive functions, pronunciation accuracy, brain development, etc.

Playing in band not only gives you mental and physical superpowers, it also makes life better: it provides a space for kids to be expressive. It provides for artistically and musically inclined minds to come together and be creative. It provides a place for kids to be a part of a community. It provides a safe space for vulnerable groups like autistic kids, 2SLGBTQ+ kids, or any kid who may feel unwelcome or unsafe in other settings.

By cutting the band program in the way that the Regina Public Schools Board and Government of Saskatchewan are doing, the damage goes far beyond simply removing another opportunity from kids in this area. It creates a generation of kids without that education. Kids who don't have the opportunity to develop the mental and physical skills illustrated here. Kids who don't have that safe space or that community. It creates a generation of kids with less developed cognitive ability, lower reading ability...it literally harms society as a whole.

By displacing professional, specialised teachers into other roles, while spreading the remaining resources ever thinner, it creates disillusioned teachers only more likely to quit, squandering a tremendous resource who could have spent their time bettering the lives of students.

Not to mention the obvious: what the hell is the point of life without art? The point of school band, as illustrated above, isn't to produce non-stop professional musicians. It's to make life better. Only a small percentage of them will grow to peruse the arts as a vocation. But those who do are among the few who get to build the very culture of which we are lucky to be a part. Imagine a world without music. Where music isn't encouraged. Imagine a world where John Williams didn't score Star Wars. Imagine radio with nothing but talking. Imagine life without the slightest sense of whimsy or fun.

The argument that music is somehow a luxury that can therefore be cut isn't just false, it's harmful.

Literally no one benefits from these cuts.

Fund band, fund the future.

Click here to sign the petition to stop these cuts