Magic Of Music Positive Connection Between Music And Learning Is Gaining Recognition
Does studying music and the arts make children smarter?
Aroused by some recent studies, the popular media have developed a sudden, unexpected interest in this question. The result has been a mix of genuinely new information and rhetorical overkill.
On the one hand, there is indeed some new and persuasive data on the benefits of arts education, especially music. And, informally at least, this new understanding of the power of the arts seems to have caught the attention of certain educators, funders and politicians.
On the other hand, there has been a certain faddish, feverish tone to some of the reporting and resulting public debate, giving the false and dangerous impression that if only we could put an oboe or paintbrush in the hands of each American schoolchild, the nation’s educational woes would be licked.
A little context is called for.
The old wisdom held that music and the arts, while not quite belonging in the category of the “basics” such as math, science and reading, were important in developing citizens that were rounded, cultured and - to use a term that now sounds quaintly dated - civilized.
The arts, in short, were pleasant and edifying if not quite essential.
The emerging thinking among many educational theorists is that music and the other arts may provide a powerful stimulus to learning itself. This, of course, is real news. Among other things, it would certainly provide fresh and compelling reasons for protecting or even expanding school-arts programs at a time when, for budget reasons, they are suffering shrinkage or elimination in many of the nation’s school systems.
Does studying music and the arts make kids smarter?
Yes, the unfolding answer seems to be. But parents also have to be smart about interpreting, and acting on, the new findings.
The idea of a connection between music and learning got a boost a couple of years ago when a University of California, Irvine study showed that college students who listened to 10 minutes of a Mozart Piano Sonata showed improvement in their shortterm spatial reasoning abilities. Apart from the implausibility of college students listening to Mozart under any circumstances, the finding was, in truth, less than overwhelming in its implications. Nevertheless, it made a large splash in the pop culture. Jay Leno did a few minutes on it during one of his monologues. Columnists and pundits applied their bemused spins; the weekly newsmagazines took note.
The Mozart phenomenon had its 15 minutes.
But more meaningful research has come along since then, with far less fanfare.
A second study at Irvine, done by the same researchers, showed that 3-year-olds given ongoing musical instruction showed “long-term enhancements” of their “nonverbal cognitive abilities.”
In other words, music helped kids to think more clearly.
In another study, done in Pawtucket, R.I., a group of firstgraders who participated in an ongoing music and visual-arts curriculum scored significantly higher in spatial reasoning tests than a control group who were not involved in the music and arts program.
The researchers’ conclusion: arts instruction “forces mental ‘stretching,’ useful to other areas of learning.”
It would be nice to think that such studies would result in an immediate, sweeping reconsideration of arts programs in schools across the country.
“Yes, I’d like to say that this new information has made the arts off-limits to cuts,” says John Mahlmann, executive director of the Music Educators National Conference, based in Reston, Va. The conference is the national professional organization representing school music teachers.
“But although there is now a lot of talk about the value of arts education, talk is still cheap. Arts education may be the fad du jour. But we still know that in many communities, and in many different ways, the arts are still being decimated.”
The arts-education debate was given fresh visibility this year with the release of the film, “Mr. Holland’s Opus.”
The picture stars Richard Dreyfuss as a well-loved high-school music teacher whose job, and department, is eventually eliminated for budget reasons. To the surprise of even its makers, the film earned more than $70 million.
Despite its bittersweet ending, which the makers of the film say was intended to energize parents rather than depress them, the film has been hailed in most music education circles for its depiction of music as a central, formative force in the lives of young people.
And some arts specialists say that between the research, the movie and mounting anecdotal evidence from the field, the arts-education effort has turned a corner.
MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: Expose children to a variety of music “How do I get my kids interested in good music?” The question, a time-honored one for parents, should be followed by two others: 1. What do we mean by good? 2. What kind of music do you listen to? Kids, and for that matter most adults, tend to encounter only a narrow slice of the musical spectrum these days. That’s because the two main sources - radio and televised music videos - offer a repertoire that is stylistically limited. Probably the best thing parents can do for their children musically is to help them get a taste of the many styles and types of music they will never hear on a popular radio station or MTV. Help them to hear and get a sense of jazz, classical, Broadway, Tin Pan Alley, film scores, folk and world music. Take them to some live concerts. (But use your head: an evening of Mahler or John Cage might not be the best choice for your young Hootie fan. Then again it might.) More importantly, play a wide range of music at home. For most people the word “play” means the stereo, but if you can stumble through “Frenesi” or “The Toreador Song” at the piano, so much the better. The important thing to remember is that music is not an either/or proposition. Young minds can easily assimilate and embrace all kinds of musical styles. They don’t have to renounce Dave Mathews in order to find room for Stravinsky or Coltrane.