Should students be allowed to listen to to music during class?

Ambient music is fine for non-lecture class time, but not everyone feels that they can concentrate with music. I listen to music at work, but I keep my door closed so I don't bother the people outside in their cubicles. It's not really fair to them if they find it distracting.

At my school, if the teacher is not lecturing, most of the time the teacher will let us listen to music while we are working.

Personally, I usually cannot concentrate with music.

High School or College?

I disagree.
I wouldn't say it's a cop-out.

I think that each teacher should be allowed to decide for themselves who deserves to listen to music. I know that when I did Advanced Higher Maths at high school I was allowed to listen to music but only because I asked. And even then, I only tended to ask during double-periods when I knew there'd be little in the way of 'lecturing' (ie we were just continuing on with work from last time).
I know that I was allowed to do this because I worked hard, did well and behaved in class. I also know that if it were a different teacher, I wouldn't even have asked - I'd had this same teacher for 4 years and he knew he could trust me. In fact, my AH Maths class actually had two teachers who we got at different times in the week and taught us different parts of the course simultaneously, it was only with one of the teachers that I felt comfortable enough to ask.

That aside, I would say that, on the whole, it's a bad idea.
Most kids don't deserve to listen to music in class and it is liable only to serve as a distraction. That said, just because it wouldn't work in the majority of cases doesn't mean that the few who would continue to work hard and do well if allowed to listen to music should be denied the chance to do so.

I'd love to listen to music, but I say no. It's school, not listen to music time. I would say yes to study halls though.

I'm with TP and Madpict.

And if you're so stupid that you can't spell simple words like 'privilege' then you need remedial English, not background music!

Also to add to the spelling thing, don't most browsers have spell checkers built it?
I'm sorry about that. I was using a school computer. I usually never have bad spelling on the internet, but the old Internet Explorer did not have a spell check.

btw this is for high school.

How could you honestly listen to a teacher and music at the same time? Study Hall or Lunch, maybe. But good luck selling this idea.

BTW, I'd have to admit my test scores would have most likely been higher if I was allowed music.

Heh, and there was me thinking my 1960's 70's approach to education would get me flamed. The great thing about my time at school was the music lessons - we had a 'trendy/hip' teacher (who ended up being 'related' to me for a while) who allowed pupils to bring in their favourite LP's (large flat vinyl discs) for some lessons.

While I could apreciate Deep Purple to a degree I managed to supress the howls of laughter at the lad who brought in T Rex...

You should have put a "Sometimes" option for the poll. I don't really want to listen to music in class, because my grades will suffer and I can't pay attention to my music AND the teacher at the same time. Most teachers in my school let you listen to music when you're doing in-class work, but not when the teacher is speaking. That works for me, 'cause I actually want to get good grades in school. I said I would choose "Sometimes" because I would like to listen to my music during the boring classes like Math.

I DO actually, however, do homework a lot faster and better while i'm listening to music because it shuts out all distractions.

a lot of you are lucky b/c my school has a STRICT no music policy. even before and after school i mean WTF. getting caught is an automatic ipod being taken away and MINIMUM of 1 saturday SUSPENSION.

I'm sorry about that. I was using a school computer. I usually never have bad spelling on the internet, but the old Internet Explorer did not have a spell check.

Excuses, excuses. :p

I'd say no. If a teacher uses classtime for seatwork, that's not a good use for classtime anyway.

I just cannot agree to this. I am a university student and I use music extensively throughout my day, mainly the half an hour walk to and from the campus. The amount of white earbuds I see each day is phenomenal and I am sure that your respective institutions are similar. With greater academic freedom comes greater responsibility and we are allowed to listen to music freely, either through personal devices or small speaker systems. Please note that the latter is only allowed in non-study areas such as the many cafs and eateries around campus.

Lessons are a different ball game. Music has a distracting quality which I find unwelcome when I am doing my studies. Listening whilst reading splits your mind's attention between the text and the lyrics. If you can blockout the music and concentrate solely on your reading that there is little point in having music on in the first place! I am unable to divide my attention between the two mediums and maintain a decent grasp of the text and the music swilling around my ears.

An implementation of this music policy would be detrimental to students' studies. It would be unfair on those that do not choose to listen as there will inevitably be noise pollution - even with earphones. It would be impossible to gauge whether music would act as an aid or hindrance until its too late. And by that time you could have an awful lot of students failing because of the lax rules.

I can see how this plays out in real life (in the US). Some student slacks off (or actually does do worse because of the music, but that's probably less likely), and the parents sue the school. The school might as well crack down to begin with, because they'll eventually have to. The only way this would work is with parent consent, and some acknowledgement of the risk of performance degradation.

Certainly music with lyrics is terrible for studying. I find it distracting for work as well, and between my daughter and me our fastest-growing genre is instrumental. She listens to music while studying nearly all of the time, and her grades haven't suffered.

Nothing now - he wrote some classic glam pop songs - it was just he was the teeny bopper icon when I was at school. Us 'guys' listened to "proper bands" like Deep Purple or The Nice even Status Quo :eek: etc etc

I still laugh at Bolan's habit of glancing up at the studio monitors and pursing his lips, just so, but like many musicians and bands I disliked when I was younger (even genres) I now appreciate them a little more...

I think it should be up to the teacher, not the school.

my art teacher lets us listen to music, i guess so we get more creative or something

I am doing a persuasive essay. I am trying to persuade my class that we should be allowed to listen to music in class. Of course, it is a privelidge. If your grade drops below an 80% or you do something against the rules, you don't get to listen to music.You can not have your music too loud either. It needs to be so the people that aren't listening to music won't be bothered. Also, if the class agrees, the teacher can play some comforting music, such as classical, for the whole class. The students would not be allowed to listen to music during lectures, only when the teacher says you can.

Who here thinks that listening to music helps them concentrate? I know it does for me, because it blocks out all the background noise.
If thats the case, than easily yes...listening to music during lectures is usually disrespectful and plain dumb imo.