March is Music in Our Schools Month

Music Education is Celebrated Every March - fire starter 100

With many schools facing the possibility of cutting music and arts education during the past couple of decades, the programs that do remain provide unique opportunities for students to develop creative skills and to reinforce critical thinking strategies learned in other subjects.

March is "Music In Our Schools Month"

Since 1985, March has been celebrated as "Music In Our Schools Month" (MIOSM) by countless educators, schools, and students across the United States, the District of Columbia, and Europe. During this month, music educators plan special music-related activities for classes and ensembles, as well as organize special events to showcase what student musicians, and music education, do to benefit students.

Many schools sponsor concerts or open houses to showcase the music programs that exist within a school district to the community. Other schools have ensembles perform at nursing homes, schools for the disabled, or other locations to share music with those who may not otherwise get to experience live music.

According to the National Association for Music Education's website, another MIOSM activity is the World's Largest Concert, held every March and sponsored by the National Association for Music Education. This sing-a-long concert serves to connect school children around the world through music, and since its first occurrence in 1985, has added instrumental students to the concert and is also now available on DVD.

History of MIOSM

Celebrating music education first happened in 1973, when the State of New York set aside one day in March to celebrate music in schools. Sponsored by the New York State School Music Association, it was meant to highlight and raise awareness of the music programs available to all students in schools throughout the state.

During the 1970s and early 1980s, the celebration grew from a day into a week into a month and quickly spread across the country. It was in 1985 that the National Association for Music Education declared March as the official "Music In Our Schools Month."

Since then, the event has been celebrated by hundreds of thousands of students, educators, and musicians in the United States and in Europe. In 2006, those who participated in the World's Largest Concert, an annual MIOSM event started in 1985 when the event was made official, was used as a benefit for the Feed the Children organization to help benefit survivors of Hurricane Katrina and other natural disasters.

Today, hundreds of thousands of students around the world participate in music programs provided by the schools they attend. Despite more and more time commitments being asked of students, budget cuts, and other issues, educators and musicians alike still find time every March to celebrate the benefits and lessons learned from being a part of a music education program.