Children and music
Posted: Tuesday, March 04, 2008 3:45 PM by Sam Singal
By Robert Bazell, NBC News chief science correspondent
We have all seen cash strapped school districts forced to cut music and other arts education programs. We have heard the complaints about how “NoChild Left Behind” and other programs increasingly force a “teach to the test” mentality that emphasizes measures of reading and math scores over a broader education. But what influence does teaching the music and the arts really have on a child’s ability to learn other things?
The Dana Foundation, a non-profit organization that supports brain research and education among other projects, commissioned some of the nation's top neuroscientists to take a deep look at the question. You can see the report out today on the Foundation’s website. There are many fascinating findings -- many pieces in a big puzzle that is far from solved. But it is clear there is a powerful connection between the arts and ability to learn many subjects
The Dana report includes work from many researchers. For Nightly News tonight we focus only on the work of Dr. Elizabeth Spelke in the Laboratory for Developmental Studies at Harvard. Most of Dr. Spelke’s time is spent studying babies but this project she looked at young people and found that those who intensively study music have an easier time with tasks that measure aptitude for geometry. Now she and her team are looking at the babies again to see how early in life this connection is established.
Yesterday a representative from the National Association for Music Education noticed the promotions for tonight’s story and called my attention to a recent Harris poll on the importance of music education to a child’s future.
