Ernie Mansfield, longtime OPEN EXCHANGE lister, offers Music Lessons for All Ages, including flute, sax, clarinet, piano, guitar, theory, songwriter services and more. See OPEN EXCHANGE's Music category.

Today there is much talk about improving education. Wouldn't it be great if we could discover a "magic bullet" that could improve test scores, spatial reasoning, language comprehension, math skills and the like? It sounds like a fantasy, but it may just be that such magic is within our reach. A large body of evidence shows that music education may be that "magic wand." Consider the hard evidence that musical instruction benefits a wide area of educational goals.

Surveys show that 80% of the practicing physicians in the USA participated in music during their formative years. A number of recent studies have looked at how music and other intellectual activity may be related. Music instruction has a significant positive influence on a variety of things; among them SAT scores, grades in school, and achievement in life.

Interestingly, in a real-world experiment, when California cut music and arts education to save money, the standards of the California public school system plummeted. A system that had consistently ranked among the best in America now ranks considerably lower in nationwide test results.

Recent studies at the University of California, Irvine, looked at the relationship between music and learning. Under-achieving third graders were given music classes along with their existing curriculum. Their test scores went up by 77%! A separate study of first graders found that students whose instruction included long-term classes in music and visual arts did significantly better on spatial reasoning tests than did students from a control group not taking the special classes.

Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores for high school seniors with four or more years of musical education were compared to seniors having had no arts education. According to The College Board, students with music exposure scored 59 points higher on the verbal portion and 42 points higher on the math section, for a combined improvement of 101 points!

Educators note that students involved in music and arts education have better attendance records, create fewer discipline problems, fewer drug problems, and have higher graduation rates than those who are not involved in the arts. According to the US Department of Education, students concentrating in the arts earn 26% more A's and B's than students in general.

Many eminent scientists and doctors also studied music. Caroline Herschel, famed British astronomer, was a singer. Dr. Robert Goddard, rocket scientist, played piano. Dr. Albert Einstein was an excellent violinist. Dr. Robert Oppenheimer, director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, was a lifelong musician. Dr. Edward Teller was an accomplished pianist. Dr. Albert Schweitzer was a concert organist. In our own SF Bay Area, Dr. Eddie Henderson is a world-class jazz trumpeter, and Dr. Denny Zeitlin is an accomplished composer and pianist.

Beyond its value as an enhancer of math and science, arts education is important because the arts are a significant and expanding part of today's economy. Currently, the arts account for 6% of the US gross national product. Compare that to 4.8% for construction, and it is obvious that the arts cannot be dismissed as unimportant.

Ernest Boyer, former US Commissioner of Education, said, "Art is humanity's most essential, most universal language."

@ Ernie Mansfield