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Isaiah Durgin
Mrs. DeBock
English 4
17 March 2016
Essential Question: What difficulties are music educators faced with nowadays?
Working Thesis: The decrease of school funding has put a burden on teachers by placing them in
the position of not being adequately prepared.
Refined Thesis: Teachers face the challenges of teaching classes without proper funding
therefore leading to music not being efficiently taught to students.
Annotated Bibliography
Ford, Adam. Point: The Arts are a Vital Part of Education. Points of View: Arts & Music in
Public Schools (2015): 1. Points of View Reference Center. Web. 9 Feb. 2016
Adam Fords article states that standardized testing has shortchanged the arts program.
He also writes that students that participate in activities such as band, drama, and art often excel
and are more likely to be recognized for academic achievement. The author closes his article by
presenting that standardized testing should not cancel the funding or importance of the arts
programs but should actually go hand in hand with each other. I can use this article to show that
because of the supposed importance of standardized testing has detracted from a teachers ability
to teach students the importance of and performance techniques that come with learning and
performing music.

Kerchner, Jody L., and Carlos R. Abril. Musical Experience in Our Lives: Things We Learn and
Meanings We Make. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Education, 2009. Print
This book includes a collection of accounts from people who have had experiences in
teaching and learning music. In one or two of the accounts given, the author tells the story of the

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difficulties of starting music programs in schools that hadnt previously had one. The difficulty
of those trying to start up these programs is exhibited by the teachers not having enough funds
for buying the needed equipment or the funds to pay for a properly educated instructor. I can use
this book to show the problems faced by teachers trying to teach without the proper funding to
do successfully do so.

"School Funding." Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection. Detroit: Gale, 2015. Opposing
Viewpoints In Context. Web. 4 Feb. 2016.
This article gives the reader a broad overview of how schools are funded and where the
budgets of schools are usually cut. The author describes how schools receive their money, both
from state taxes as well as corporate advertisements at sporting events. They also discuss the
political reforms towards education. Some politicians argue that there is too much money being
spent on education while others argue that too little is being spent. This article will support my
position of how much pressure is put on public school teachers without the allocation of proper
funding.