One of the biggest rules in all schools is no earbuds or headphones unless told otherwise. But why is it so important that students can’t listen to music?
In my opinion, music can help improve learning in all aspects. When I get to sit down, put my headphones in, and work on an assignment, I am much more focused than without headphones. While this may not necessarily be true for everyone, many do agree.
After surveying a group of students from all grade levels, it shows that 95% of the students who responded prefer to listen to music while working, but the most fascinating part of the survey was that certain types of music affected the amount of work completed. The results showed that the majority of people think instrumental or music without words is the best to listen to while working. They also said that rap and rock music is probably the worst to listen to because it can be distracting. When a lot is happening in a song, it can throw off your thought process.
When asked how music can help while working on assignments, students mainly said that it helps them focus and cut out outside distractions. It helps them target one specific thing at a time instead of procrastinating.
Senior Morgan Williams says, “I correlate rhythm and sound to the things I’m learning and so when I hum the songs, I better recall the information.”
Nevertheless, the students also said that music can be very distracting. They end up trying to find the “perfect song” to fit your mood or concentrating on the words rather than the task at hand.
However, students aren’t the ones making the rules on listening to music. If they were, we would be able to listen to music at all times. Teachers also have an important part of this decision. Some teachers allow students to listen to music the whole class, only while doing an assignment, or not at all.
Math teacher Robbie Raber allows his students to listen to music during class.
“I think that music helps SOME students, not all. Some students have the ability to use music as a barrier from distractions so that they can focus on their academic tasks at hand. Some other students don’t have the ability to do that, and instead music creates a distraction for them from completing their academic tasks.”
Teachers deserve the respect of their students, and listening to music while they’re teaching is very disrespectful. The majority of teachers will allow you to listen to music when they’re done teaching but not while they’re in the middle of a lesson.
Overall, the rule about being able to listen to music while working should be changed. Studies show that the majority of students believe music helps improve their learning, and learning is the number one priority of the school.
