The benefits of music education for children
Introduction
Music is a very powerful subject: it has been used since Greek times for healing, communication, relaxation and enjoyment. Even before birth we are aware of our mother’s heartbeat and during infancy we relax with the singing of a lullaby. Every day, everyone hears some kind of musical tone or rhythm and it can even be found in nature, like the way birds communicate through song-like speech.
Music is such a powerful force that it creates deep emotions in humans: it is played at weddings for happiness, in horror movies and during wars for fear, and at home for happiness and thus lends itself to relaxation, stress relief and health therapy. and the connection between music, body and soul has even been shown to improve physical and mental health.
Skills such as teamwork, communication, self-esteem, creative thinking, calm attitudes, imagination, discipline, study skills, and invention are learned and improved through studying music and focusing on the fact that young children are mostly very receptive to pitch and rhythm, one of the main ways a child learns their language, that we can push music education into children to help them with benefits ranging from success in society and in life.
“We believe that the skills the arts teach — creative thinking, problem solving, risk taking, teamwork and communication — are precisely the tools tomorrow’s workforce will need. If we don’t encourage students to master these skills Through quality art instruction today, how can we expect them to succeed in their highly competitive business careers tomorrow?”
-Richard Gurin
CEO, Binney and Smith, manufacturer of Crayola crayons
Music is part of our society and part of all communities: every human culture uses music to further their ideas and ideals. A study of the arts provides children with an insight into other cultures and teaches them to empathize with people from these cultures. This development of compassion and empathy, as opposed to the development of greed and a selfish attitude, provides bridges between different cultures leading to respect for other races at a young age.
Music is of great value to our economy: it creates jobs, increases the tax base, boosts tourism and stimulates the growth of related businesses. The study of music develops the skills that are necessary in the workplace, such as teamwork skills and discipline: during musical performances, all members must work together to create the sounds they want to achieve and for this too regular practice is required. Music encourages working and ‘doing’ rather than watching, and this is the ethic that employers look for.
Due to music’s ability to relax, calm and heal, and its optimal platform for emotions, participation in music helps to forge brighter attitudes: more optimism about the future, less television and unproductive activities, low alcohol consumption , tobacco and illicit activities. drugs and desire to develop individual skills.
Music requires study skills, communication skills, and cognitive skills, and as they are learned and developed, they broaden a student’s abilities in other academic areas and help them become a better student. – Students with courses/experience in music performance and music appreciation scored higher on the SAT: students in music performance scored 57 points higher in verbal and 41 points higher in math, and students in music appreciation scored 63 points higher in verbal and 44 points more in mathematics. higher points in math than students who did not participate in the arts. — National Report on Seniors Going to College: Profile of SAT Test Takers. Princeton, New Jersey: The University
Entrance Examination Board, 2001.
The discipline of music, particularly through participation in ensembles, helps students learn to work effectively in the school environment without resorting to violent or inappropriate behavior. According to statistics compiled by the National Data Resource Center, students who can be classified as “disruptive” (based on factors such as frequent absences from classes, times in trouble, in-school suspensions, disciplinary reasons given, arrests, and dropouts) total 12.14 percent of the total school population. In contrast, only 8.08 percent of students participating in music classes meet the same criteria as “disruptive.” — Based on data from NELS:88 (National Education Longitudinal Study), second follow-up, 1992.
Many studies have been done on the effects of music on the brain. Scientists say that children who are exposed to music or who play an instrument do better in school than those who are not. Recent research suggests that exposure to music may benefit a child’s reading age, IQ, and the development of certain parts of the brain.
Some measures of a child’s intelligence can be shown to increase with musical instruction: a connection between music and spatial intelligence (the ability to perceive the world accurately and form mental images of things) helps people visualize and imagine solutions. This helps people solve problems creatively and is critical to the kind of thinking needed to solve math problems and even general everyday tasks.
“The musician is constantly fine-tuning decisions about tempo, pitch, style, rhythm, phrasing, and feeling, training the brain to be incredibly good at organizing and directing numerous activities at once. Dedicated practice of this orchestration can be highly rewarding for lifetime”. capacity for attention, intelligence and capacity for self-knowledge and expression”. — Ratey John J., MD. A user’s guide to the brain. New York: Pantheon Books, 2001.
Along with mental development, the study of music may support the physical development of the brain: it has been suggested that musical training physically develops the parts of the brain known to be involved with language processing and reasoning, and actually it can connect brain circuits in specific ways. Memory can be enhanced by linking familiar songs to objects, as can picture linking: memories and emotions from the past can be triggered by audio.
“Why the arts in education? Why education at all? The purpose of education is not simply to inform, but to enrich and illuminate, to provide information about life as it has been led and how it can be led. No element of the curriculum is better suited to that task than arts education.
-David Kearns
Now retired, Chairman and CEO of Xerox Corporation
Ideally, we want our children to experience “success” throughout life itself. The benefits can be psychological, spiritual and physical and with the challenge of making life meaningful and fulfilling and reaching a higher state of development by participating in music we develop self-expression which in turn leads to self-esteem which ultimately help us succeed in these challenges
Casals says music fills him with the wonder of life and the ‘incredible wonder’ of being a human being. Ives says it expands his mind and challenges him to be a true individual. Bernstein says it’s enriching and ennobling. To me, that sounds like a good cause to make music an integral part of every child’s education. Studying music and the arts elevates children’s education, broadens students’ horizons, and teaches them to appreciate the wonder of music. life”.
— United States Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley, July 1999.
conclusion
Music is a powerful tool and, as you can see, it can dramatically improve and enrich everyone. It makes sense to boost music education and allow younger generations to reap these wonderful benefits: increased intelligence through greater creative thinking, problem solving, and physically stronger brains, a greater insight into life including better attitudes, strong desires for achieve and fulfill and a higher self. self-esteem, better developed discipline, study skills, concentration, communication, and team skills that transfer from education to career, and a better understanding of communities and society
