Why is Music important in the elementary classroom?
- Improve cognitive performance. Background music may enhance performance on cognitive tasks . One older study found that listening to music allowed test takers to complete more questions in the time allotted, and get more answers right . More recent research suggests that whether or not music improves cognitive function depends on whether the music first improves a person’s emotional state.
- Music provides children with a means of self-expression. Now that there is relative security in the basics of existence, the challenge is to make life meaningful and to reach for a higher stage of development. Everyone needs to be in touch at some time in his life with his core, with what he is and what he feels. Self-esteem is a by-product of this self-expression.
- Students of music learn craftsmanship as they study how details are put together painstakingly and what constitutes good, as opposed to mediocre, work. These standards, when applied to a student’s own work, demand a new level of excellence and require students to stretch their inner resources.
- A study of the arts provides children with an internal glimpse of other cultures and teaches them to be empathetic towards the people of these cultures. This development of compassion and empathy, as opposed to development of greed and a “me first” attitude, provides a bridge across cultural chasms that leads to respect of other races at an early age.
- Recent studies show that students who study the arts are more successful on standardized tests such as the SAT. They also achieve higher grades in high school.
- Students of the arts learn to think creatively and to solve problems by imagining various solutions, rejecting outdated rules and assumptions. Questions about the arts do not have only one right answer.
- There is also a causal link between music and spatial intelligence (the ability to perceive the world accurately and to form mental pictures of things). This kind of intelligence, by which one can visualize various elements that should go together, is critical to the sort of thinking necessary for everything from solving advanced mathematics problems to being able to pack a book-bag with everything that will be needed for the day.
Visit any of the websites below to find out more information about the importance of music in the elementary classroom:
- http://www.collective-evolution.com/2014/03/13/seven-reasons-why-music-benefits-your-health/
- http://greatist.com/happiness/unexpected-health-benefits-music
- http://www.childrensmusicworkshop.com/advocacy/12benefits/
- https://www.dosomething.org/facts/11-facts-about-music-education
- http://www.askmen.com/money/body_and_mind_100/146_better_living.html
- http://www.vh1savethemusic.org/why-music/benefits-to-the-brain