Recently there has been a plethora of research done on music’s effects on the brain, especially in regard to children and their development. Multiple experiments have shown that musical study develops cognitive ability, basic math and literacy skills, and self esteem. Children involved in music are found to have higher average SAT scores, better school attendance, and less involvement with gang activities and substance abuse. The Mozart Effect which has become a popular experiment conducted on this topic, consists of the idea that listening to classical music can improve and speed up brain development. The study has indicated that while it is difficult to measure long term effects of classical music on brain development, short term effects are certainly noticeable. Test subjects given the same exam yielded a higher median score among those that listened to Mozart in the few weeks prior to taking it .
After finding this research and contemplating it for a while, it was easy for me to logically draw a few parallels between musical education and academic education. As previously mentioned, many studies have shown that individuals participating in a music education program have higher levels of literacy than their peers who do not. If you think about it, students learn to “read” music from left to right, much the same way that a book is read. They must interpret a certain set of symbols and derive the intended meaning from them. The two concepts are extremely similar, making it far from coincidence that practice in one will improve performance in the other. Not only does music allow children to practice this skill of interpreting symbols that is so necessary to a variety of academic disciplines, but it accomplishes it in a way that is enjoyable, and less redundant than many of the programs that are centered on improving literacy. This is one of many reasons that music education programs must be preserved if we are to maintain the quality of education that is offered to our children.
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