At Tuesday night's School Committee meeting, Coventry High School junior Adam Kalunian presented his Capstone Project about the importance of music education in schools, titled "Staying on the Beat With Music".

Adam gave a PowerPoint presentation that began with his core question, "How can a Coventry High School studen research and inform others about the importance of music classes in a school setting?"

Basing his project on the increasingly popular decision for school districts to cut funding for music education, Adam, who plays four instruments in addition to singing, described his passion for music and how he feels that it is as important as any other subject in school. Through research, he pointed out statistics about the effect that music education has on students, such as students in top-quality music programs scored 22% better in English and 20% better in math - findings that were consistent across regions.

"Many people say that music is not a real class, but through my research I've proven that it is just as important as any class," he said. "Nowadays, illiteracy is increasing and music is a good way to enhance the skills used in reading."

According to Adam's presentation, other benefits of music education are better memory, enhanced reasoning and recall skills, teamwork, math, self discipline, better focus and the ability to concentrate on multiple things like playing or singing notes while reading ahead to prepare for the next ones. Self expression was another important element that was pointed out.

"My chorus teacher tells us to feel the music," Adam explained. "When students express themselves, they have that much less stress on them because they were able to get it out instead of keeping it inside."

At the end of his 31-slide presentation, Adam took questions from Committee members and administrators about his Capstone process and his personal experiences with music. He told his audience that he wants to go to college for music education and become a music teacher one day, which is why saving the music is so important to him.