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| 10 Reasons to Give Your Child Music Lessons |
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"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
"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.
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
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 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.
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
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
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 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
"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. |
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