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Yes to Music, No to Muzak: Give

February 14th, 2007 by Progressive Wednesday

Give:

It's difficult to know where to even start explaining how important music education is for children and teens. A good place to start might be the National Education Association. But allow us to elucidate a bit for you with some specifics from solid authorities:

  1. Music education improves math skills[1], [2], [3], [4] and increase IQs[5], [6].
  2. Music education makes your brain larger[7].
  3. Music education reduces the use of booze, tobacco, and illegal drugs[8].
  4. Music education keeps kids in school[9].
  5. Music education boosts self-esteem[10], [11].
  6. Music education actually heals.[12], [13]

What's the upshot of all this? Not only does music education help children and teens directly, music education helps the culture as a whole, by producing a more intelligent, thoughtful, confident, and healthy populace. Plus, I'm always waiting for the next great rock band, and that ain't gonna happen without music education.

For a great example of the power of music in the lives and children and the beauty they can create, check out The Langley Schools Music Project. From the website, you can listen to clips of recordings of rock and pop songs made twenty years ago by children from rural Canada as taught to them by Hans Fenger. We both own this album and completely adore these delightful tunes recorded in a wonderfully simplistic way.

But its not just parents, scientists, nonprofits, teachers, and us touting the importance of music to children and teens. According to federal law, arts education (which includes music) is considered a “core academic subject.– To clarify, the feds have said that core academic subjects also include “English, reading or language arts, mathematics, science, foreign languages, civics and government, economics,– ¦history, and geography.– You can read it in the No Child Left Behind Act for yourself. (That’s Title IX, Part A, Sec. 9101 (11).)

So we're rather humbly asking that you make a small donation to one of these three organizations (in alphabetical order):

  1. Little Kids Rock
  2. Music Friends
  3. VH 1's Save the Music Foundation[14]

What do we mean by small? Well, we make $5-$25 donations to each organization we recommend as a charity needing additional support. We're telling you this, not to seem holy, but rather to emphasize two things: 1. We try our best to practice what we suggest; 2. Every single dollar helps. So please, help.

To learn more about Progressive Wednesday, just click here, here, or here.

 

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[1] “Music and Mathematics: Modest Support for the Oft-Claimed Relationship,” Journal of Aesthetic Education, Fall 2000, 34 (3-4):149-166

 

[2] 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.

 

[3] 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

 

[4] Graziano, Amy, Matthew Peterson, and Gordon Shaw, “Enhanced learning of proportional math through music training and spatial-temporal training.” Neurological Research 21 (March 1999).

 

[5] Schellenberg, E.G. (2004). Music lessons enhance IQ. Psychological Science, 15, 511-514.

 

[6] 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.

 

[7] 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.

 

[8] “Texas Commission on Drug and Alcohol Abuse Report.” Reported in Houston Chronicle, January 1998

 

[9] “The Role of the Fine and Performing Arts in High School Dropout Prevention,” N. Barry, J. Taylor, & K. Walls, Center for Music Research, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, 1990

 

[10] “The Effects of Musical Performance, Rational Emotive Therapy and Vicarious Experience on the Self-Efficacy and Self-Esteem of Juvenile Delinquents and Disadvantaged Children,” Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Department of Music and Dance, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 1998

 

[11] National Arts Education Research Center, New York University, 1990.

 

[12] Michael E. DeBakey, M.D., Leading Heart Surgeon, Baylor College of Music.

 

[13] Dr. Frederick Tims, reported in AMC Music News, June 2, 1999.

 

[14] We're not one to give music videos “big ups– let alone “mad props,– and we're not one to pat Viacom on its media conglomeration back, but VH1's Save the Music program rocks. We're talking “Detroit Rock City– rocks. We're talking “Helter Skelter– rocks. And yes, we're talking “Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution– rocks. You can read more about the power of music here.

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