Do we need more music education?

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We recent­ly pub­lished an arti­cle exam­in­ing the “Mozart effect” and the con­clu­sions were that there is very lit­tle evi­dence that lis­ten­ing to music does boost men­tal func­tions. How­ev­er learn­ing to play an instru­ment does seem to do the trick.

In this recent Sci­en­tif­ic Amer­i­can arti­cle, the edi­tors point out that:

The musi­cal­ly adept are bet­ter able to con­cen­trate on a biol­o­gy les­son despite the rack­et in the class­room or, a few years lat­er, to fin­ish a call with a client when a col­league in the next cubi­cle starts scream­ing at an underling.

They note at the same time:

a dis­turb­ing trend of a decline of music edu­ca­tion as part of the stan­dard curriculum.

Com­ments: This arti­cle shows once again the gap between what we know about the brain and brain health and the appli­ca­tion of this knowl­edge, espe­cial­ly in education.

To learn more about how brain sci­ence fits into nation­al class­room cur­ric­ula read The brain in sci­ence edu­ca­tion: What should every­one learn.

And stay tuned: We will pub­lish next week the Top Brain Book Col­lec­tion for Edu­ca­tors and Learn­ers!

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  2. ec says

    We do not need more of the same music edu­ca­tion, we need new mod­els and meth­ods. Why does the pro­fes­sion aban­don its mem­bers upon HS grad­u­a­tion? Why do we insist on teach­ing band orches­tra or choir pieces rather than musi­cal con­cepts? We wind up with illit­er­ate mon­keys per­form­ing for a con­test or spring concert…then we lament that our pro­grams are being cut and that clas­si­cal music con­certs lack audi­ences. Check out the Kore Series by MusickEd.com — these guys have some­thing spe­cial going and are mav­er­icks in their pro­fes­sion. If they can suc­ceed, it just might elim­i­nate the need to beg for fund­ing to keep music in the schools.