MUSIC CLASSES ARE A VITAL PART of student academic …



MUSIC CLASSES ARE A VITAL PART of student academic achievement. The importance of music and fine arts has been debated in school board rooms across the country for several years. As budgets are trimmed and school music programs are cut, this becomes an important question to answer. These music and arts programs are an important component of student learning and success. | 

[pic][pic]  | |Music programs are not extras!

Instrumental and vocal music classes are often referred to as "extracurricular" classes. Music is anything but "extracurricular". Music classes offer many benefits which make them very indispensable. Performance programs enhance a student's sense of self esteem as well as their social skills. Students become a part of a positive group and organization. Not only do students profit socially from music programs, but they also gain academically.

Several studies have confirmed that music directly enhances learning through increased spatial development. Math and reading are improved by learning rhythms and decoding notes and symbols. So there appears to be cross disciplinary learning in music.

Music makes the grade!

For years elementary teachers have decried the music pullout program (students are taken out of class to receive music instruction once or twice a week) because of "lost instruction" time. But according to many studies these fears are unfounded.

Researchers in Hamilton, Ohio, documented that students participating in a string pullout program scored higher on the reading, mathematics and citizenship portions of the Ohio Proficiency Test (OPT), than their non-music peers.

This study paired string and non-music students based on their verbal Cognitive Abilities Test (COGAT). Four groups of string students were released two times a week for instruction. Two of those four groups scored significantly higher on the reading and mathematics portion of the OPT than their non-music peers. Additionally, 68% of string students scored at grade level or higher on all four sections of the test compared to 58% of the non-music students. For more information (Michael D. Wallick, Ohio City Schools)

In high school, the results are also convincing. Every year juniors and seniors take the Stanford Achievement Test (SAT) for college admissions . These scores reflect several years of education and are intended to judge a persons over-all education.

  Source: The College Board, Profile of College- Bound Seniors National Report for 2001.

 

SAT scores of students who took part in music instruction surpassed students with no music training. Data collected from students taking the SAT, indicated that students taking music and arts averaged scores that were higher than non music students by 60 points on the verbal section and 43 points on the math section.

Additionally, data revealed that for every year a student participated in music instruction, their SAT scores improved. Students with four or more years of music study recieved an average score of about 544 as opposed to a score just above 482 for those with half a at least one semester of music instruction, thus showing a strong correlation between music and academic success. (For more information see MENC Web Page)

Source: The College Board, Profile of College- Bound Seniors National Report for 2001.

Whether the results are a reflection of a direct cognitive connection or other factors, such as higher self-esteem, and involvement in school, the outcome is no less important. Music does influence and impact student learning and success.

Music for everyone

The fact is, music is an important avenue to individual success. Music should be made available to all students in all schools. Music programs hold an influential place in school and academic structure. When consideration is being given to program and budget cuts administrators, parents, counselors and teachers need to know that music education is not just an "extra" elective to fill students' schedules, but a vital part of a complete"academic" education.

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|Facts compiled by MENC Staff, Spring 2002. When using |  |

|factual quotes from this brochure, please be sure to cite |[pic][pic]  |

|individual research source which follows each quote/fact. | |

|Other text copy in the brochure was authored by MENC Staff.| |

|When citing from these sections, please reference as: | |

|"Source: MENC&emdash;The National Association for Music | |

|Education "Benefits of Music Education" Brochure, Spring | |

|2002". | |

For further questions, contact info@. This information is also available in a print brochure (minimum order 25) for a small charge. To order, contact mbrserv@

The basic statement is unlikely to be challenged by anyone involved in education. In the sometimes harsh reality of limited time and funding for instruction, however, the inclusion of the arts in every student's education can sometimes be relegated to a distant wish rather than an exciting reality.

It doesn't have to be that way! All that's needed is a clear message sent to all those who must make the hard choices involved in running a school or school system. The basic message is that music programs in the schools help our kids and communities in real and substantial ways. You can use the following facts about the benefits of music education, based on a growing body of convincing research, to move decision-makers to make the right choices.

The benefits conveyed by music education can be grouped in four categories:

* Success in society

* Success in school

* Success in developing intelligence

* Success in life

When presented with the many and manifest benefits of music education, officials at all levels should universally support a full, balanced, sequential course of music instruction taught by qualified teachers. And every student will have an education in the arts.

Benefit One: Success in Society

Perhaps the basic reason that every child must have an education in music is that music is a part of the fabric of our society. The intrinsic value of music for each individual is widely recognized in the many cultures that make up American life &emdash; indeed, every human culture uses music to carry forward its ideas and ideals. The importance of music to our economy is without doubt. And the value of music in shaping individual abilities and character are attested in a number of places:

* Secondary students who participated in band or orchestra reported the lowest lifetime and current use of all substances (alcohol, tobacco, illicit drugs). Texas Commission on Drug and Alcohol Abuse Report. Reported in Houston Chronicle, January 1998

* "Music is a magical gift we must nourish and cultivate in our children, especially now as scientific evidence proves that an education in the arts makes better math and science students, enhances spatial intelligence in newborns, and let's not forget that the arts are a compelling solution to teen violence, certainly not the cause of it!" Michael Greene, Recording Academy President and CEO at the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards, February 2000.

* The U.S. Department of Education lists the arts as subjects that college-bound middle and junior high school students should take, stating "Many colleges view participation in the arts and music as a valuable experience that broadens students' understanding and appreciation of the world around them. It is also well known and widely recognized that the arts contribute significantly to children's intellectual development." In addition, one year of Visual and Performing Arts is recommended for college-bound high school students. Getting Ready for College Early: A Handbook for Parents of Students in the Middle and Junior High School Years, U.S. Department of Education, 1997

* The College Board identifies the arts as one of the six basic academic subject areas students should study in order to succeed in college. Academic Preparation for College: What Students Need to Know and Be Able to Do, 1983 [still in use], The College Board, New York

* The arts create jobs, increase the local tax base, boost tourism, spur growth in related businesses (hotels, restaurants, printing, etc.) and improve the overall quality of life for our cities and towns. On a national level, nonprofit arts institutions and organizations generate an estimated $37 billion in economic activity and return $3.4 billion in federal income taxes to the U.S. Treasury each year. American Arts Alliance Fact Sheet, October 1996

* The very best engineers and technical designers in the Silicon Valley industry are, nearly without exception, practicing musicians. Grant Venerable, "The Paradox of the Silicon Savior," as reported in "The Case for Sequential Music Education in the Core Curriculum of the Public Schools," The Center for the Arts in the Basic Curriculum, New York, 1989

Benefit Two: Success in School

Success in society, of course, is predicated on success in school. Any music teacher or parent of a music student can call to mind anecdotes about effectiveness of music study in helping children become better students. Skills learned through the discipline of music, these stories commonly point out, transfer to study skills, communication skills, and cognitive skills useful in every part of the curriculum. Another common variety of story emphasizes the way that the discipline of music study &emdash; particularly through participation in ensembles &emdash; helps students learn to work effectively in the school environment without resorting to violent or inappropriate behavior. And there are a number of hard facts that we can report about the ways that music study is correlated with success in school:

* "The term 'core academic subjects' means English, reading or language arts, mathematics, science, foreign languages, civics and government, economics, arts, history, and geography." No Child Left Behind Act of 2002, Title IX, Part A, Sec. 9101 (11)

* A study of 237 second grade children used piano keyboard training and newly designed math software to demonstrate improvement in math skills. The group scored 27% higher on proportional math and fractions tests than children that used only the math software. Graziano, Amy, Matthew Peterson, and Gordon Shaw, "Enhanced learning of proportional math through music training and spatial-temporal training." Neurological Research 21 (March 1999).

* In an analysis of U.S. Department of Education data on more than 25,000 secondary school students (NELS:88, National Education Longitudinal Survey), researchers found that students who report consistent high levels of involvement in instrumental music over the middle and high school years show "significantly higher levels of mathematics proficiency by grade 12." This observation holds regardless of students' socio-economic status, and differences in those who are involved with instrumental music vs. those who are not is more significant over time. Catterall, James S., Richard Chapleau, and John Iwanaga. "Involvement in the Arts and Human Development: General Involvement and Intensive Involvement in Music and Theater Arts." Los Angeles, CA: The Imagination Project at UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, 1999.

* Students with coursework/experience in music performance and music appreciation scored higher on the SAT: students in music performance scored 57 points higher on the verbal and 41 points higher on the math, and students in music appreciation scored 63 points higher on verbal and 44 points higher on the math, than did students with no arts participation. College-Bound Seniors National Report: Profile of SAT Program Test Takers. Princeton, NJ: The College Entrance Examination Board, 2001.

* According to statistics compiled by the National Data Resource Center, students who can be classified as "disruptive" (based on factors such as frequent skipping of classes, times in trouble, in-school suspensions, disciplinary reasons given, arrests, and drop-outs) total 12.14 percent of the total school population. In contrast, only 8.08 percent of students involved in music classes meet the same criteria as "disruptive." Based on data from the NELS:88 (National Education Longitudinal Study), second follow-up, 1992.

* Data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 showed that music participants received more academic honors and awards than non-music students, and that the percentage of music participants receiving As, As/Bs, and Bs was higher than the percentage of non- participants receiving those grades. NELS:88 First Follow-up, 1990, National Center for Education Statistics, Washington DC

* Physician and biologist Lewis Thomas studied the undergraduate majors of medical school applicants. He found that 66% of music majors who applied to medical school were admitted, the highest percentage of any group. 44% of biochemistry majors were admitted. As reported in "The Case for Music in the Schools," Phi Delta Kappan, February 1994

* A study of 811 high school students indicated that the proportion of minority students with a music teacher role-model was significantly larger than for any other discipline. 36% of these students identified music teachers as their role models, as opposed to 28% English teachers, 11% elementary teachers, 7% physical education/sports teachers, 1% principals. D.L. Hamann and L.M. Walker, "Music teachers as role models for African-American students," Journal of Research in Music Education, 41, 1993

* Students who participated in arts programs in selected elementary and middle schools in New York City showed significant increases in self-esteem and thinking skills. National Arts Education Research Center, New York University, 1990

Benefit three: Success in Developing Intelligence

Success in school and in society depends on an array of abilities. Without joining the intense ongoing debate about the nature of intelligence as a basic ability, we can demonstrate that some measures of a child's intelligence are indeed increased with music instruction. Once again, this burgeoning range of data supports a long-established base of anecdotal knowledge to the effect that music education makes kids smarter. What is new and especially compelling, however, is a combination of tightly-controlled behavioral studies and groundbreaking neurological research that show how music study can actively contribute to brain development:

* In a study conducted by Dr. Timo Krings, pianists and non-musicians of the same age and sex were required to perform complex sequences of finger movements. Their brains were scanned using a technique called "functional magnetic resource imaging" (fMRI) which detects the activity levels of brain cells. The non-musicians were able to make the movements as correctly as the pianists, but less activity was detected in the pianists' brains. Thus, compared to non-musicians, the brains of pianists are more efficient at making skilled movements. These findings show that musical training can enhance brain function. Weinberger, Norm. "The Impact of Arts on Learning." MuSICa Research Notes 7, no. 2 (Spring 2000). Reporting on Krings, Timo et al. "Cortical Activation Patterns during Complex Motor Tasks in Piano Players and Control Subjects. A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study." Neuroscience Letters 278, no. 3 (2000): 189-93.

* "The musician is constantly adjusting decisions on tempo, tone, style, rhythm, phrasing, and feeling--training the brain to become incredibly good at organizing and conducting numerous activities at once. Dedicated practice of this orchestration can have a great payoff for lifelong attentional skills, intelligence, and an ability for self-knowledge and expression." Ratey John J., MD. A User's Guide to the Brain. New York: Pantheon Books, 2001.

* A research team exploring the link between music and intelligence reported that music training is far superior to computer instruction in dramatically enhancing children's abstract reasoning skills, the skills necessary for learning math and science. Shaw, Rauscher, Levine, Wright, Dennis and Newcomb, "Music training causes long-term enhancement of preschool children's spatial-temporal reasoning," Neurological Research, Vol. 19, February 1997

* Students in two Rhode Island elementary schools who were given an enriched, sequential, skill-building music program showed marked improvement in reading and math skills. Students in the enriched program who had started out behind the control group caught up to statistical equality in reading, and pulled ahead in math. Gardiner, Fox, Jeffrey and Knowles, as reported in Nature, May 23, 1996

* Researchers at the University of Montreal used various brain imaging techniques to investigate brain activity during musical tasks and found that sight-reading musical scores and playing music both activate regions in all four of the cortex's lobes; and that parts of the cerebellum are also activated during those tasks. Sergent, J., Zuck, E., Tenial, S., and MacDonall, B. (1992). Distributed neural network underlying musical sight reading and keyboard performance. Science, 257, 106-109.

* Researchers in Leipzig found that brain scans of musicians showed larger planum temporale (a brain region related to some reading skills) than those of non-musicians. They also found that the musicians had a thicker corpus callosum (the bundle of nerve fibers that connects the two halves of the brain) than those of non-musicians, especially for those who had begun their training before the age of seven. Schlaug, G., Jancke, L., Huang, Y., and Steinmetz, H. (1994). In vivo morphometry of interhem ispheric assymetry and connectivity in musicians. In I. Deliege (Ed.), Proceedings of the 3d international conference for music perception and cognition (pp. 417-418). Liege, Belgium.

* A University of California (Irvine) study showed that after eight months of keyboard lessons, preschoolers showed a 46% boost in their spatial reasoning IQ. Rauscher, Shaw, Levine, Ky and Wright, "Music and Spatial Task Performance: A Causal Relationship," University of California, Irvine, 1994

* Researchers found that children given piano lessons significantly improved in their spatial- temporal IQ scores (important for some types of mathematical reasoning) compared to children who received computer lessons, casual singing, or no lessons. Rauscher, F.H., Shaw, G.L., Levine, L.J., Wright, E.L., Dennis, W.R., and Newcomb, R. (1997) Music training causes long-term enhancement of preschool children's spatial temporal reasoning. Neurological Research, 19, 1-8.

* A McGill University study found that pattern recognition and mental representation scores improved significantly for students given piano instruction over a three-year period. They also found that self-esteem and musical skills measures improved for the students given piano instruction. Costa-Giomi, E. (1998, April). The McGill Piano Project: Effects of three years of piano instruction on children's cognitive abilities, academic achievement, and self-esteem. Paper presented at the meeting of the Music Educators National Conference, Phoenix, AZ.

* Researchers found that lessons on songbells (a standard classroom instrument) led to significant improvement of spatial-temporal scores for three- and four-year-olds. Gromko, J.E., and Poorman, A.S. (1998) The effect of music training on preschooler's spatial-temporal task performance. Journal of Research in Music Education, 46, 173-181.

* In the Kindergarten classes of the school district of Kettle Moraine, Wisconsin, children who were given music instruction scored 48 percent higher on spatial-temporal skill tests than those who did not receive music training. Rauscher, F.H., and Zupan, M.A. (1999). Classroom keyboard instruction improves kindergarten children's spatial-temporal performance: A field study. Manuscript in press, Early Childhood Research Quarterly.

* An Auburn University study found significant increases in overall self-concept of at-risk children participating in an arts program that included music, movement, dramatics and art, as measured by the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale. N.H. Barry, Project ARISE: Meeting the needs of disadvantaged students through the arts, Auburn University, 1992

Benefit four: Success in Life

Each of us wants our children &emdash; and the children of all those around us to achieve success in school, success in employment, and success in the social structures through which we move. But we also want our children to experience "success" on a broader scale. Participation in music, often as not based on a grounding in music education during the formative school years, brings countless benefits to each individual throughout life. The benefits may be psychological or spiritual, and they may be physical as well:

* "Studying music encourages self-discipline and diligence, traits that carry over into intellectual pursuits and that lead to effective study and work habits. An association of music and math has, in fact, long been noted. Creating and performing music promotes self-expression and provides self-gratification while giving pleasure to others. In medicine, increasing published reports demonstrate that music has a healing effect on patients. For all these reasons, it deserves strong support in our educational system, along with the other arts, the sciences, and athletics." Michael E. DeBakey, M.D., Leading Heart Surgeon, Baylor College of Music.

* "Music has a great power for bringing people together. With so many forces in this world acting to drive wedges between people, it's important to preserve those things that help us experience our common humanity." Ted Turner, Turner Broadcasting System.

* "Music is one way for young people to connect with themselves, but it is also a bridge for connecting with others. Through music, we can introduce children to the richness and diversity of the human family and to the myriad rhythms of life." Daniel A. Carp, Eastman Kodak Company Chairman and CEO.

* "Casals says music fills him with the wonder of life and the 'incredible marvel' of being a human. Ives says it expands his mind and challenges him to be a true individual. Bernstein says it is enriching and ennobling. To me, that sounds like a good cause for making music and the arts an integral part of every child's education. Studying music and the arts elevates children's education, expands students' horizons, and teaches them to appreciate the wonder of life." U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley, July 1999.

* "The nation's top business executives agree that arts education programs can help repair weaknesses in American education and better prepare workers for the 21st century." "The Changing Workplace is Changing Our View of Education." Business Week, October 1996.

* "Music making makes the elderly healthier.... There were significant decreases in anxiety, depression, and loneliness following keyboard lessons. These are factors that are critical in coping with stress, stimulating the immune system, and in improved health. Results also show significant increases in human growth hormones following the same group keyboard lessons. (Human growth hormone is implicated in aches and pains.)" Dr. Frederick Tims, reported in AMC Music News, June 2, 1999

* "Music education opens doors that help children pass from school into the world around them a world of work, culture, intellectual activity, and human involvement. The future of our nation depends on providing our children with a complete education that includes music." &emdash; Gerald Ford, former President, United States of America

* "During the Gulf War, the few opportunities I had for relaxation I always listened to music, and it brought to me great peace of mind. I have shared my love of music with people throughout this world, while listening to the drums and special instruments of the Far East, Middle East, Africa, the Caribbean, and the Far North and all of this started with the music appreciation course that I was taught in a third-grade elementary class in Princeton, New Jersey. What a tragedy it would be if we lived in a world where music was not taught to children." H. Norman Schwarzkopf, General, U.S. Army, retired

* "Music is about communication, creativity, and cooperation, and, by studying music in school, students have the opportunity to build on these skills, enrich their lives, and experience the world from a new perspective." - Bill Clinton, former President, United States of America

 

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(from the MENC website)

Dramatic Benefits of Group Music Instruction Are Just Beginning to Be Understood

-By Dr. Alicia Ann Clair and Karl T. Bruhn Copyright © 1999

Humans have the need to belong, to be part ofincreasingly a group of individuals who share interests, and who come together for a common purpose. Such needs are as important to children and teens as they are to people in mid-life and to senior adults. In fact, it is being understood that this need for connection with others may be the most important component contributing to quality of life.

That's just one -- albeit an important -- reason why learning to play a musical instrument in an organized group setting can be so beneficial. A three-year research undertaking called the Music Making And Wellness Research Project, has underscored the relationship between group music making and wellness, especially among the elderly.

Dr. Frederick Tims, principal investigator for the project and professor and chair of Music Therapy at Michigan State University says, "We feel strongly that abundant health benefits can be achieved by older adults who learn to make music in a supportive, socially enjoyable setting." In addition, he states," We are just beginning to understand the positive effects of making music on our bodies and our physical health."

Researchers believe this to be the case because over and above the sheer pleasure and enjoyment of learning to make music, participating in supportive, socially enjoyable music classes provides the opportunity for social interaction in a totally non threatening environment. And they have found that sharing music making often leads to people also sharing personal concerns and issues that are a part of life's experiences. For example, people who make music together in their communities, often travel together to and from lessons. As their interests grow, many also attend musical events with one another and continue to socialize after their classes or attending a musical event. As their knowledge and appreciation of one another grows, they may share things about their personal lives and in the process of opening up, discover meaningful new and lasting friendships. However, people who are not as comfortable sharing on a personal level focus their discussions on music and music making topics. In such a setting, sharing the music provides the basis and the reason for social interaction.

The benefits and joys of an individual learning to play a musical instrument generally have been well known. Less well known, Tims says, are the significant and additional benefits that come from making music in a supportive, socially enjoyable setting. He is an advocate in encouraging others that this is something worth looking into for anyone thinking about learning to play an instrument and making their own music.

Dr. Alicia Ann Clair is Director of Music Therapy, University of Kansas. Karl Bruhn serves as presidential advisor to the American Music Therapy Association.

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|On November 8, 1998 at the Society for Neuroscience annual |  |

|meeting in Los Angeles, Dr. Lawrence Parsons of the University of|[pic][pic]  |

|Texas-San Antonio discussed the results of his research which | |

|showed that significantly more of the brain was being used during| |

|music making than previously thought. | |

Through his use of imaging research, Dr. Parsons analyzed music's influence on the brain by examining expert musicians. One of the studies found that expert musicians use widely dispersed, interconnected brain areas when they intently listen to different aspects of a piece of music including its rhythm, melody, and harmony. IN addition, he and his colleagues found that there is an area in the right half of the brain that interprets written musical notes and passages of notes, that is known to interpret written letters, and words. Moreover, they report an overall, strong activation in the cerebellum, a brain area traditionally thought to coordinate only fine movement or motor behavior.

"We believe this is the first detailed study of the functionalneuroanatomy of the expert musicians' comprehension of musical structure." says Parsons. "The research shows more clearly than ever that music is represented in mechanisms widely distributed throughout the brain rather than localized in a single region as are other kinds of information, such as visual or movement information." In addition, the researchers say that their findings show that the structure of music, and our use of it, are similar in key respects to language structure and use. "An understanding of the brain locations that represent the separate aspects of music will help us identify the neural mechanisms that are specific to music, specific to language and are shared between the two," says Parsons. "The finding that there is a right brain region for notes and musical passages that corresponds in location to a left brain region for letters and words illustrates how a neural mechanism may be present in each of the two brain hemispheres becomes special adapted for analogous purposes but with different information contexts."

Non-musicians also are able to direct attention to the musical components of harmony, melody and rhythm and would therefore produce similar, but probably smaller activation in most of the same music brain areas, according to the researchers.

Researchers find Active Music Making Expands the Brain

In the April 23, 1998 issue of Nature, Researchers at the University of Munster in Germany reported their discovery music lessons in childhood actually enlarge the brain. An area used to analyze the pitch of a musical note is enlarged 25% in musicians, compared to people who have never played an instrument. The findings suggest the area is enlarged through practice and experience. The earlier the musicians were when they started musical training, the bigger this area of the brain appears to be. 

In a May 5, 1998 New York Times article it states:

"The discovery, described in the April 23 issue of the journal Nature, was made after scientists put musicians and others into a magnetic brain imaging machine pointed at the auditory cortex, where sounds are processed. This part of the brain contains cells, called neurons, which are sensitive to different sound frequencies. Neurons that fire in response to the same frequency tend to cluster into little islands, forming a kind of sound frequency map in the auditory cortex."

"The researchers said that skilled musicians use more neurons for processing sounds from a piano or better synchronize those sounds because of their training. Furthermore, the younger the musicians started playing their instruments, the greater their response to piano notes. Musicians with perfect pitch or absolute relative pitch showed no differences. The increased response to piano tones was the same in those who played piano, woodwinds or stringed instruments, although most of the musicians said that they had received early training on the piano."

As we mentioned before we are about to see an avalanche of information which will go on to show the incredible impact music making has on the overall development of human beings OF ALL AGES.

This is just one more important piece of the puzzle!

Source: Nature, New York Times ()

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|Music participation provides a unique opportunity for literacy |  |

|preparation. Whether the children are singing, playing, or listening, |[pic][pic]  |

|teachers direct them to listen and hear in new ways which exercises | |

|their aural discrimination. Playing instruments and adding movement to | |

|the lessons teaches children about sequential learning which is | |

|essential in reading comprehension. | |

Plato once said that music “is a more potent instrument than any other for education”. You will find many teachers of young children who would agree with him. Recent research has found that music uses both sides of the brain, a fact that makes it valuable in all areas of development. Music affects the growth of a child’s brain academically, emotionally, physically and spiritually.

Music is academic. For some people, this is the primary reason for providing music lessons to their children. A recent study from the University of California found that music trains the brain for higher forms of thinking. Second graders who were given music lessons scored 27% higher on proportional math and fractions tests than children who received no special instruction. Research indicates that musical training permanently wires a young mind for enhanced performance.

Music is physical. Music can be described as a sport. Learning to sing and keep rhythm develops coordination. The air and wind power necessary to blow a flute, trumpet or saxophone promotes a healthy body.

Music is emotional. Music is an art form. We are emotional beings and every child requires an artistic outlet. Music may be your child’s vehicle of expression.

Music is for life. Most people can’t play soccer, or football at 70 or 80 years of age but they can sing. And they can play piano or some other instrument. Music is a gift you can give your child that will last their entire lives.

 

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|The case for music in the schools by Dr. Frances Rauscher |  |

|Keynote speaker for WMEA Convention, Tacoma, February 1996 |[pic][pic]  |

|- This article appeared in the October 1995 issue of VOICE,| |

|the official Washington Music Education Association | |

|publication, and is used and retyped with permission from | |

|the editor of VOICE. (Dr. Rauscher’s paper ‘Music & Spatial| |

|Task Performance: A Causal Relationship’. | |

It is an anomaly that while music is undermined in our public schools as a legitimate subject for serious study, there is a rise in the body of research demonstrating that music is a valuable tool for educators. Those who consider music to be an extra-curricular activity unworthy of inclusion as a core subject are overlooking the unique qualities that music instruction provides to all children. It is the purpose of this article to provide educators with further ammunition in the war to keep music in the public schools.

The work discussed below is being carried out at the University of California at Irvine, under the direction of myself and Dr. Gordon Shaw. The work was motivated by a structured neuronal model of the cerebral cortex developed by Drs. Shaw and Xiaodan Leng, which hypothesized a causal connection between music training and spatial ability (Leng and Shaw, 1991). Music activity, they proposed, strengthens neural firing patterns organized in a spatial-temporal code over large regions of the cortex. These firing patterns are also exploited by spatial reasoning tasks. This model, together with studies which show correlations between music training and spatial tasks, led to the following prediction: Music, which is cross-culturally appreciated from birth, can be used to develop these inherent brain patterns, along with their associated behaviors.

A small pilot study conducted in 1993 provided the first supporting behavioral data. Ten preschoolers’ spatial abilities improved after music training (Rauscher, Shaw, Levine & Wright, 1993). Several further studies continue to support the model. Music, then, may be an important element of human intelligence.

Brief Overview

To discover the relationship between music and other reasoning abilities, scientists employ several methods. Two of the most popular approaches are 1) gathering physiological data using brain imaging techniques (EEG, MRI, PET) to map the brain areas that may be common to musical reasoning and other abilities, and 2) gathering behavioral data to support or disprove a model of music and intelligence. The most information, of course, will come from a combination of both techniques.

Preliminary Studies

In 1992-1993, a pilot study found that a small group of preschoolers provided with several months of music training scored significantly higher on a task designed to measure spatial-temporal reasoning than was expected by population norms (Rauscher, Shaw, Levine & Wright, 1993). Two schools participated in the study: a middle-income school and a school for at-risk children. Although the effect was significant for both schools, the at-risk school children improved dramatically-by 91%.

This was followed in 1993 by a study designed to determine if merely listening to music might improve spatial IQ. We found that college students who listened to ten minutes of Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos (K44S) scored 8-9 points higher on tasks designed to measure spatial IQ than when they listened to ten minutes of either self-hypnosis relaxation instructions or silence (Rauscher, Shaw & Ky, 1993). This effect, however, was temporary. It lasted only 10-15 minutes.

In 1994 we replicated this study, and again found that spatial-temporal reasoning improved after listening to the Mozart Sonata (Rauscher, Shaw & Ky, 1993). Daily exposure to the Mozart produced daily increases in scores. This enhancing effect does not, however, apply to all styles of composition or to all domains of intelligence. Unlike Mozart’s music, listening to Phillip Glass’ minimalist music did not enhance spatial-temporal reasoning. Further, the students’ scores on a short-term memory task did not improve after listening to the Mozart versus silence.

Although the “Mozart effect” is very intriguing, and holds great promise for further explorations into the transfer of musical processing to other domains of reasoning, the effect’s limitations suggest that merely listening to music is probably not sufficient for lasting enhancement of spatial-temporal intelligence. Listening to music is a passive experience for most people, and does not require the involvement that actively making music does. This observation, together with the predictions of the Leng and Shaw model and the long-term effects shown by the music training pilot study, led us to suspect that actively making music has greater benefits for spatial temporal intelligence than merely listening to music.

Last year, we replicated the pilot study with a larger group of preschoolers, 19 who were provided with music lessons and 14 who were not (Rauscher, Shaw, Levine, Ky & Wright, 1994). The lessons consisted of 10-15 minute private keyboard instruction, 30-minute daily group singing lessons, and daily supervised keyboard practice periods. Instruction was not confined to Classical Western music. The children played and sang the music of several different cultures, nationalities and styles.

Using a standardized spatial reasoning IQ test (Wechsler, 1989), we tested all the children’s spatial skills at the start of the study and again 8 months later. As with our previous preschool studies, the tasks were taken from an age-standardized IQ test, and included one task with six items designed to measure spatial-temporal reasoning (The Object Assembly task), and four tasks of items designed to measure spatial-logical reasoning (Wechsler, 1989). Spatial-temporal operations are responsible for combining separate elements of an object into a single whole, or by arranging objects in a specific spatial order. Their fundamental aspect is the ability to establish spatial-temporal continuity among the elements (Nicolopoulou, 1988). Spatial-temporal operations, then, require successive steps, each step somewhat dependent upon previous ones. The Object Assembly task, designed to measure this ability, thus required the child to assemble cardboard puzzle pieces to create a familiar object, such as a dog or a bouquet of flowers. Spatial-logical operations, in contrast, require recognition of similarities or differences among objects, and is generally a one-step process (ibid.). For example, the child asked to classify objects according to their color or shape would be performing a spatial-logical operation. Based on the Leng and Shaw model and our previous work, we predicted that music training would increase spatial-temporal task scores, but would not affect the children’s scores on the spatial-logical tasks.

Recommendations and Closing Comments

These studies suggests a causal relationship between music and spatial task performance. By demonstrating that music improves the intellectual functioning of all children, we have shown that music education is essential for optimal cognitive development. If we do not provide adequate opportunities for our children to learn and participate in music, we are depriving them of a great resource. School funding for the arts is used primarily to produce performances by talented and interested students for the enjoyment of parents and the community. It is not used to help young people who may not have musical talent reach their full potentials. This a tragedy for both the individual and the nation.

If music is to become a basic part of education, those responsible for our educational systems must become convinced of its educational, as well as its artistic worth. They must be convinced that music is as essential to a satisfactory education as are English, math and science. It is ironic and perhaps unfortunate that we may be forced to resort to science to show the value of music to education. The point must be made that the data from this research in no way takes away from the value of studying music for the beauty and expression it offers in and of itself. This work does not diminish music as an art, but rather it increases the status of music as an educational tool. Music education is essential for all students, not just the gifted and talented, and therefore all educators must understand that providing music education is a fundamental part of their responsibility.

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|Irvine, Calif. -- Keeping Mozart in Mind, a new, landmark book by Dr. |  |

|Gordon Shaw to be released in September, presents the latest scientific |[pic][pic]  |

|findings on the effects of music on reasoning and learning, and the real| |

|story behind the "Mozart effect" research. Dr. Shaw, world-renowned for | |

|his leadership in the music and the brain studies and co-discoverer of | |

|the "Mozart effect", starts with the theme "music as a window into | |

|higher brain function." Building from that, he shows how music can help | |

|us understand how the brain works and how music may enhance how we | |

|think, reason and create. | |

This interdisciplinary book represents over 25 years of Dr. Shaws music/brain research and includes key information about his original research and that of other scientists around the world. While it offers the most comprehensive overview of the relevant scientific research available in one place, Keeping Mozart in Mind is written in a style that makes this information accessible to not only researchers and clinicians, but also educators and parents.

Keeping Mozart in Mind is divided into five distinct topics. Part I gives the essential ideas of Dr. Shaw's theme that music can enhance our ability to think and reason. He supports this theme with history, anecdotes and a series of interviews. Part II contains the more technical aspects of how music enhances learning. Made readable and accessible to everyone, Keeping Mozart in Mind contains a complete glossary, notes and a brief guide at the beginning of each chapter to outline the important points and objectives. Part III contains all the details of the dramatic behavior experiments that were performed with humans involving music. Part IV presents the results and proposed studies that are crucial to the detailed scientific understanding of what is happening in the brain. Part V presents the future of music as an influence upon higher brain function. Included in this section is a look at education along with Dr. Shaw's conclusion on how music might enhance child brain development.

Keeping Mozart in Mind includes key information about scientific research studies that have shown some remarkable results, including:

--In March 1999, Neurological Research published the latest study headed by Shaw, reporting that second graders who played the piano and the S.T.A.R. o interactive game developed by Matthew Peterson saw their scores rise 27% on proportional math and fractions tests.

--In February 1997, a study from Dr. Shaws laboratory, published in Neurological Research, announced that six months of piano keyboard training caused enhancement of spatial-temporal reasoning in preschool children: they scored 34% higher on puzzle-solving tests.

--In November, 1993, Dr. Shaw and Dr. Francs Rauscher published an article in Nature. It announced that a study done with college students showed that listening to the Mozart Sonata for Two Pianos in D. Major (K. 448) caused a subsequent enhancement in reasoning. This "Mozart effect," as coined by the media, created worldwide interest. It quickly became part of the popular folklore that was referred to in comic strips, advertisements, music CDs, and more.

Excerpt from the Preface: This book is our story of higher brain function: how humans think, reason, and create. It is based on a structured model of the brain that Xiaodan Leng and I proposed in 1991; it demonstrates how music is a window into higher brain function. This book is not about music, but about how music can help us understand how the brain works and how music can enhance how we think, reason and create. We are at the very beginning of this quest: much additional research remains to be done. However, I believe that we have made considerable progress and that all the pieces of the story presented here fit into a coherent and compelling picture.

Excerpt from the Prologue: The ideas presented in this book cross many boundaries, including brain theory, neurophysiology, child development, music cognition, education, teaching of music, teaching of math and science, neuropathology, psychology, and the evolution of the brain. But why should I write this book now when we are at the very early and controversial stages of this quest to understand how we think and reason by using music as a window into higher brain function? The reason is that I believe this book brings together the diverse experimental data and theory that support this model.

Let me present it as a substantial number of pieces in a puzzle: Looking at each piece of the puzzle, a careful thinker would have many questions and doubts about the results from any individual piece. Furthermore, the pieces are not big enough to make the final result obvious. However, by carefully examining each piece and the relationship among the pieces, I believe it becomes extremely likely that we are on the right track. In fact, I hope that this book will serve as the necessary guide in completing the puzzle of higher brain function.

The book is accompanied by a CD-Rom that includes Mozarts Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major, (K.448), performed by Murray Perahia and Radu Lupu, courtesy of Sony Classical, and a demonstration of S.T.A.R. (Spatial-Temporal Animation Reasoning), an interactive software program developed by Matthew Peterson, that was used in combination with piano lessons in a recent study where elementary age children showed significant improvement in the ability to learn difficult math concepts.

D. Gordon Shaw is a professor emeritus in the Center of Neurobiology of Learning and Memory and the Department of Physics at the University of California, Irvine.

Keeping Mozart in Mind is available in bookstores September 1999, c.400pp., casebound/CD-rom enclosed, $49.95, ISBN: 0-12-639290-0. > > > >

 

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“Arts for…Everything’s Sake”

Author: Joan Fretz, Huntington Schools | July 15th, 2005

Communities: Long Island School Leadership Center

Joan R. Fretz

Director of Performing Arts

Huntington Schools, NY

“Arts for Art’s Sake:” A familiar plea from every arts advocate, but certainly not enough ammunition to save our arts programs in today’s world of shrinking budgets. “Arts for Everything’s Sake” is really what quality arts education is all about. The better we articulate that, the more successful we will be in preserving arts initiatives in the public schools. Arts educators are skillful in their craft, and passionate about what their art form has done for them personally and what they see it doing for young people today. They are often not as skilled however, at explaining to the academic world why their educational offerings are so important. That is the voice that needs to be heard. So, whether you are an arts educator or an administrator thinking about the role the arts should play in your school’s program, perhaps the perspective shared here will help you to inform and demonstrate what you believe in.

While we may have to accept the mandates from the State and Federal government regarding testing in the academic subjects, we must remember that as educators, we are best suited to design the instructional strategies that will help our students to meet these goals. You may not find the tests to be terribly creative, but, that doesn’t mean our teaching strategies can’t be! So much has been written recently about what motivates students to learn and to simply be willing to “do” school. Much of what the research tells us points to:

· finding ways forstudents to connect meaningfully with the adults they work with,

· discovering a student’s talents and passion,

· developing all of the intelligences in order to succeed in the academics,

· providing opportunities for learning through different modalities, and

· making the learning relevant.

All of these suggest that we must develop strategies that are creative and anything but “drill and kill.”

For many students, a visual or performing arts course is the place where they feel the most accepted, acknowledged, connected and productive. They can easily see a tangible end product and experience self-discipline and self-confidence on a daily basis. Arts teachers often have more opportunity for informal conversations with students, and can very often be effective mentors for students. How many times have we watched a failing student discover that they have a future in an arts career, and suddenly, with that goal in mind, become motivated to succeed in all of their courses?

Living in New York, we certainly could make a case for the number of career opportunities that exist in the ever-expanding media arts and entertainment field. Preserving real skill development arts courses in our schools will make arts careers a possibility for all students. Eliminating arts training from the schools will take us back to well,…medieval times…when only the wealthy were given training in the arts. Yet, even that’s not the strongest rationale for providing Arts Education for everyone.

The power of the arts to connect to virtually every other area of the school curriculum, and in doing so, help students to become life long lovers of all learning, is the strongest rationale. The essence of Arts Education is to actually teach and develop artistic competencies, not just teach students about the arts. Yet, the key to Arts curricula becoming “core curricula” is making meaningful connections to other areas of the school curriculum. When the arts are used as a tool to help students become passionate and excited about other areas of the curriculum, we create an opportunity for significantly expanding support for arts education. The concept involves selecting a significant topic or issue and weaving it into your arts curriculum, so that you achieve two objectives: developing competencies in the arts and the academic subject. You design the activities so that you are teaching the specific arts objectives for that grade level or course, but within the same lesson, you incorporate material from the other subject matter. You are simply teaching two things at the same time. It does not demean the importance of your craft….in empowers the arts as a vehicle for making all learning more meaningful.

To illustrate the point, let’s return to medieval times, and explore how the arts empower the academic curriculum. I’ve chosen this example, because it has easy application to all areas of the arts at both elementary and secondary levels.

What do you remember about medieval times from your social studies courses? The mode of learning that I remember was “read pages 46-52 and answer the three questions at the end of the chapter.” Unfortunately, most every social studies course I took used this approach to learning. Needless to say, I didn’t enjoy history much at all, until I became a music teacher...

I finally learned to love history when I had a reason to use the material I was studying. I was invited to join a team of instructors for a graduate music education course. Part of my assignment was the movement and renaissance dance part of the course. So, I took a crash course with a dance reconstruction expert in Manhattan. There was something inspiring about learning renaissance dance in a tiny apartment filled with Elizabethan costumes and no furniture! I took what I learned back to my elementary program and became a supporter of medieval festivals, in which our sixth graders became knights, ladies, doctors and peasants and researched all aspects of medieval life. They made the music, danced the dances, built the castles and created the stained glass windows. Every aspect of our arts program was a tool in the development of the festival. I discovered that I was suddenly fascinated with learning the historical facts, and more importantly, so were the students. The key is to have the students making the art and using the history….not just learning about the art and reading the history.

It must be at least 10 years since the first medieval festival, yet, if I meet those students in town today, they will inevitably talk about the festivals and what they remember learning through them. They can still recite the speech they gave about being a nun or doctor in medieval times. They remember every step of the sword dance. They were motivated to learn the material in the social studies text because they had an immediate need to use the information. It was ancient, but it was so relevant to them.

There are many more examples to explore, from reinforcing language arts skills through music and movement in the primary grades, to introducing secondary English students to a famous children’s author and inspiring them to write and illustrate their own children’s books, to building panpipes in conjunction with a science unit on acoustics and playing with an authentic Andean panpipe band. You will be amazed at what a little brainstorming with your colleagues and your PTA Arts-In-Education Committee can create!

Making the most out of your arts project includes maximizing the connection with the rest of the faculty. An interdisciplinary project provides the classroom or academic teacher with a wider range of learning modalities to choose from. It’s no longer just the music teacher taking the “bow” in front of the public. Arts connections provide a way for the entire staff to be acknowledged for a project. I have often heard our academic teachers complain about how much praise and acknowledgement the arts teachers get because they are so often in the public’s eye. By working together, we share the “stage” and take the bow together. And, the academic teacher develops a better appreciation for the role of the arts expert in the school. Ah, to be valued as more than someone’s prep period!

The last piece of the “Arts for Everything” strategy is finding a clever way to involve the public in your program, so that they can actually participate in the learning. Consider presenting a project as an “Informance” – an informal and informative program, instead of a finished product. Spend a few minutes at the beginning of the program, letting the parents experience your pedagogy, by coaching a group of parents to play a simple role in a story, teaching them an instrument part to play in the performance, or inviting parents in one evening to put the finishing touches on scenery or project displays. The end result is yet another connection: parents having a meaningful learning experience side by side with their children. When the public experiences the learning process first hand, while also connecting with their children and the dedicated faculty, they go home truly appreciating the arts and the joy of learning through them. It may take a little more planning, but when your colleagues, students and parents experience the connection, so much less explaining is necessary. The arts become a necessity and a local mandate. It’s not what you do or say that creates support. It’s how you demonstrate what you do that empowers the arts. Frankly, the Informance program is a strategy that works for demonstrating every subject area and the effectiveness of our schools in general. You can easily apply this concept to the full school curricula by planning an interactive “Open House” at your school.

As an arts educator, the easiest way to get started is for the initiative to come from you. You know best what your program goals are and what skill competencies you need to develop with a specific group of students. So when you have the opportunity to pick the project or subject area to connect with, the chances are that you will be able to make the artistic experience one in which the students are still achieving your program goals. Be careful not to let arts education courses be used simply as tools for other subjects or for merely entertaining the public. When that happens, your curriculum goals get put aside. The students may have a fun experience, but they won’t really be developing independent skills in the art form. You will have sacrificed arts education instead of empowering it…and you’ll be expected to produce the impressive “big show” every year.

So, to preserve the integrity of Arts Education, and to empower other subjects and the role of the arts in our schools, I encourage you to make connections. Try it this fall, before the “cut the frills” discussions begin. Build your circles of support by including your colleagues and parents in the magic of your craft, and you will not stand alone in your support of “Arts for Everything’s Sake.”

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|There has been considerable media coverage given to the latest in |  |

|psychological research from the Appalachian State University study |[pic][pic]  |

|challenging the Mozart Effect as well a book titled the Myth of the | |

|First Three Years (The Free Press, John T. Bruer ) which would have us | |

|believe that these first years aren't nearly as important or critical to| |

|learning as we have been led to believe. | |

On Wednesday, August 25, 1999 an article apeared in the scientific peer review journal Nature citing Christopher Chabris of the Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts presenting an analysis of 17 studies and suggesting that the (Mozart) effect is less than would arise by chance. In the same issue of Nature, Kenneth Steele of the Department of Psychology, Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina and colleagues try, and fail, to replicate the original result, and Rauscher defends her original conclusions from these two attacks.

Rauscher stresses that popular misconceptions that her work showed a relationship between listening to Mozart and general intelligence have arisen. Her original result, which is, she claims, upheld by other studies, reported ONLY AN IMPROVEMENT IN TASKS INVOLVING ORDERING OBJECTS IN SPACE AND TIME.

The initial music brain study, conducted by Drs. Shaw and Rauscher suggested that students exposed to 10 minutes of music by Mozart, specifically Allegro conspirito from Sonata for Two Pianos in D major, K448 caused an enhancement in reasoning (ordering objects in space and time) lasting from some 10-15 minutes.

This study led to other studies, including the one noted in Neurological Research in February 1997 stating that 6 months of piano keyboard training causes enhancement of spatial-temporal reasoning in preschool children lasting several days.

Dr. Norman Weinberger, Executive Director of the International Foundation for Music Research, responded to the Appalachian State University study. He replied, "Many studies have failed to replicate the Shaw/Rauscher original Mozart effect of passive listening.

 

Fran Rauscher wrote an article explaining the failures... there have also been some successes. I would be extremely cautious about arguing that passive listening to music briefly produces an "increase in IQ" (even transiently). The major transfer effects of music are likely to come from active playing of music and in continual music education experiences."

 

ACTIVE MUSIC MAKING, NOT PASSIVE LISTENING is the key to enhanced spatial-temporal reasoning (higher math skills require this). That is not to say that there isn't a benefit to passive listening, just that research has been focused on active participation. We will continue to keep you posted on the debate.

 

Dr. Shaw continues his research on the brain and the cumulative total of his work (25 years) will appear in his book, Keeping Mozart in Mind, (Academic Press) which is due in bookstores on September 7, 1999.

 

AMC has been working with the media throughout the past two weeks to be sure that a balanced story appears in each article challenging the Shaw/Rauscher research. Our media contacts at major outlets have indicated a very strong interest in discussing Dr. Shaw's new book, as well as his views on the research.

 

We will keep you posted with continued updates as we hear about them.

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|The U.S. Department of Education recommends the arts to |  |

|college-bound middle and junior high school students asserting, |[pic][pic]  |

|“Many colleges view participation in the arts and music as | |

|valuable experience that broadens students’ understanding and | |

|appreciation of the world around them.” | |

In addition, it plays a part in developing “children’s intellectual development.” The U.S. DOE also suggests one year of Visual and Performing Arts for college-bound high school students. (Source: Getting Ready for College Early: A Handbook for Parents of Students in the Middle and Junior High School Years, U.S. Department of Education, 1997)

The arts are one of the six subject areas in which the College Board recognizes as essential in order to thrive in college. (Source: Academic Preparation for College: What Students Need to Know and Be Able to Do, 1983 [still in use], The College Board, New York )

The arts produce jobs, generating an estimate $37 billion with a return of $3.4 billion in federal income taxes. (Source: American Arts Alliance Fact Sheet, October 1996 )

Students taking courses in music performance and music appreciation scored higher in the SAT than students with no arts participation. Music performance students scored 53 points higher on the verbal and 39 points higher on the math. Music appreciation students scored 61 points higher on the verbal and 42 points higher on the math. (Source: 1999 College-Bound Seniors National Report: Profile of SAT Program Test Takers, The College Entrance Examination Board, Princeton, New Jersey)

According to the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988, music students received more academic honors and awards than non-music students. A higher percentage of music participants received As, As/Bs, and Bs than non-music participants. (Source: NELS:88 First Follow-up, 1990, National Center for Education Statistics, Washington D.C.)

Lewis Thomas, physician and biologist, found that music majors comprise the highest percentage of accepted medical students at 66%. (Source: As reported in “The Case for Music in the Schools,” Phi Delta Kappan, February 1994.)

Research made between music and intelligence concluded that music training is far greater than computer instruction in improving children’s abstract reasoning skills.(Source: Shaw, Rauscher, Levine, Wright, Dennis and Newcomb, “Music training causes long-term enhancement of preschool children’s spatial-temporal reasoning,” Neurological Research, vol. 19, February 1997 )

The University of Montreal researched brain imaging techniques to study brain activity during musical tasks. Researches concluded that sight-reading musical scores and playing music “activate regions in all four of the cortex’s lobes” and “parts of the cerebellum are also activated during those tasks.” (Source: J. Sergent, E. Zuck, S. Tenial, and B. MacDonnall (1992). Distributed neural network underlying musical sight reading and keybpard performance. Science, 257, 106-109. )

Researchers in Leipzig discovered through the use of brain scans that musicians had larger planum temporale, the region of the brain associated with reading skills. Also, musicians had a thicker corpus callosum, the nerve fibers that connect the two halves of the brain. (Source: G. Schlaug, L. Jancke, Y. Huang, and H. Steinmetz (1994). “In vivo morphometry of interhemispheric asymmetry and connectivity in musicians.” In I. Deliege (Ed.), Proceedings of the 3rd international conference for music perception and cognition (pp. 417-418), Liege, Belgium. )

“The arts enrich communities and employees, and also stimulate the kind of intellectual curiosity our company needs to stay competitive.” (Source: Norma R. Augustine, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Martin Marietta Corporation.)

“A grounding in the arts will help our children to see; to bring a uniquely human perspective to science and technology. In short, it will help them as they grow smarter to also grow wiser. (Source: Robert E. Allen, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, AT&T Corporation, in “America’s Culture Begins with Education”)

This data is exerpted from Music Makes the Difference: Music, Brain Development, and Learning which is MENC publication #1668 and may be purchased at the MENC website at .

Arts Education aids students in skills needed in the workplace: flexibility, the ability to solve problems and communicate; the ability to learn new skills, to be creative and innovative, and to strive for excellence. (Source: Joseph M. Calahan, Director of Corporate Communications, Xerox. Corporation)

I believe arts education in music, theater, dance and the visual arts is one of the most creative ways we have to find the gold that is buried just beneath the surface. They (children) have an enthusiasm for life, a spark of creativity, and vivied imaginations that need training...training that prepares them to become confident young men and women. As I visit schools around the country I see a renewed interest in arts education and a growing concern about the negative impact of cutting art and music out of curriculum. The creativity of the arts and the joy of music should be central to the education of every American child. (Source: Richard W. Riley, U.S. Secretary of Education)

Music is Beating Computers at Enhancing Early Childhood Development. Music training, specifically piano instruction, is far superior to computer instruction in dramatically enhancing children's abstract reasoning skills necessary for learning math and science. Learning music at an early age causes long-term enhancement of spatial-temporal reasoning. (Source: Frances Rauscher, Ph.D., Gordon Shaw, Ph.D., University of California, Irvine, 1997)

Music Enhances Linguistic Skills. Music -- specifically song -- is one of the best training grounds for babies learning to recognize the tones that add up to spoken language. (Source Sandra Trehubn, University of Toronto, 1997)

America Is a Country Full of Music-Makers. 113 million, or 53% of Americans over the age of 12 are current or former music makers. (Source: 1997 "American Attitudes Towards Music" poll conducted by the Gallup Organization)

Americans Say Schools Should Offer Instrumental Music Instruction as part of the regular curriculum. 88% of respondents indicated this in a 1997 "American Attitudes Towards Music" Gallup poll. (Source: Music Trades, September 1997)

Student involvement in extracurricular or cocurricular activities makes students resilient to current substance use among their peers, according to a recent statewide survey of Texas Schools. Secondary students who participated in band, orchestra or choir reported the lowest lifetime use of all substances. (Source: 1994 Texas School Survey of Substance Abuse Among Students: Grades 7-12)

Studying Music Strengthens Students' Academic Performance. Rhode Island studies have indicated that sequential, skill-building instruction in art and music integrated with the rest of the curriculum can greatly improve children's performance in reading and math. (Source: "Learning Improved by Arts Training" by Martin Gardiner, Alan Fox, Faith Knowles, and Donna Jeffrey, Nature, May 23, 1996)

Music and Spatial Task Performance: A Casual Relationship. Music lessons, and even simply listening to music, can enhance spatial reasoning performance, a critical higher-brain function necessary to perform complex tasks including mathematics. (Source: Frances Rauscher, Ph.D., Gordon Shaw, Ph.D., University of California, Irvine, 1994)

The Mozart Effect surfaced about four years ago when research uncovered that adults who listened to music of complexity for ten minutes or so experienced temporary increases in their spatial IQ scores. (Source: Frances Rauscher, Ph.D., Gordon Shaw, Ph.D., University of California, Irvine, 1994)

Music Is One of Our Greatest Economic Exports. "The arts are an economic plus -- second only to aerospace as our most lucrative national export." (Source: Michael Greene of The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences)

Teacher Expertise in Music is a Critical Factor in Student Learning. Research indicates that teachers of all subjects -- including music -- who are more experienced and educated are more effective in the classroom. Consequently, students learn more from them. (Source: Paying for Public Education: New Evidence on How and Why Money Matters, by Ronald Ferguson, 1991)

 

 

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|Twelve Benefits of Music Education |  |

| |[pic][pic]  |

1. Early musical training helps develop brain areas involved in language and reasoning. It is thought that brain development continues for many years after birth. Recent studies have clearly indicated that musical training physically develops the part of the left side of the brain known to be involved with processing language, and can actually wire the brain's circuits in specific ways. Linking familiar songs to new information can also help imprint information on young minds.

2. There is also a causal link between music and spatial intelligence (the ability to perceive the world accurately and to form mental pictures of things). This kind of intelligence, by which one can visualize various elements that should go together, is critical to the sort of thinking necessary for everything from solving advanced mathematics problems to being able to pack a book-bag with everything that will be needed for the day.

3. Students of the arts learn to think creatively and to solve problems by imagining various solutions, rejecting outdated rules and assumptions. Questions about the arts do not have only one right answer.

4. Recent studies show that students who study the arts are more successful on standardized tests such as the SAT. They also achieve higher grades in high school.

5. A study of the arts provides children with an internal glimpse of other cultures and teaches them to be empathetic towards the people of these cultures. This development of compassion and empathy, as opposed to development of greed and a "me first" attitude, provides a bridge across cultural chasms that leads to respect of other races at an early age.

6. Students of music learn craftsmanship as they study how details are put together painstakingly and what constitutes good, as opposed to mediocre, work. These standards, when applied to a student's own work, demand a new level of excellence and require students to stretch their inner resources.

7. In music, a mistake is a mistake; the instrument is in tune or not, the notes are well played or not, the entrance is made or not. It is only by much hard work that a successful performance is possible. Through music study, students learn the value of sustained effort to achieve excellence and the concrete rewards of hard work.

8. Music study enhances teamwork skills and discipline. In order for an orchestra to sound good, all players must work together harmoniously towards a single goal, the performance, and must commit to learning music, attending rehearsals, and practicing.

9. Music provides children with a means of self-expression. Now that there is relative security in the basics of existence, the challenge is to make life meaningful and to reach for a higher stage of development. Everyone needs to be in touch at some time in his life with his core, with what he is and what he feels. Self-esteem is a by-product of this self-expression.

10. Music study develops skills that are necessary in the workplace. It focuses on "doing," as opposed to observing, and teaches students how to perform, literally, anywhere in the world. Employers are looking for multi-dimensional workers with the sort of flexible and supple intellects that music education helps to create as described above. In the music classroom, students can also learn to better communicate and cooperate with one another.

11. Music performance teaches young people to conquer fear and to take risks. A little anxiety is a good thing, and something that will occur often in life. Dealing with it early and often makes it less of a problem later. Risk-taking is essential if a child is to fully develop his or her potential.

12. An arts education exposes children to the incomparable.

 

 

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