Every week, children would have singing lessons, be introduced to instruments, and learned about the great composers. Art instruction included using mediums such as watercolor, charcoal, and tempura paints, as well as art history lessons and exposure to artists from across the centuries. Children were provided with all the materials they would need, and musical instruments were rented to families who did not have their own, for a nominal fee.

At some point in time around the early 1980’s, music and art instruction in the public schools came to an end. Budget cuts were blamed and schools were left scrambling to find the money to continue their art and music programs in the schools. Art and music teachers were not rehired and classroom teachers attempted to take over. Much of what they taught was based on what they had learned from the professional art and music teachers in years past. Schools in more affluent area were able to carry on with their programs, in large part because of the donations of time and supplies made by their parents who could financially sustain them.

During the 1990’s they was a resurgence of music and art programs due to the efforts of the large artistic and musical communities who saw the need for this type of instruction in the public schools. Movies like Mr. Holland’s Opus opened our eyes to the need for these programs by our young people.

Do music and art programs in the schools really help our children learn academic subjects more easily? Music is associated with mathematics, patterns, and memory function. Art stimulates a part of the brain that has been linked to writing proficiency. Music and art programs do add to our children’s academic progress and should be a regular part of their school curriculum.

1. Playing music improves concentration, memory and self-expression

One two-year study in Switzerland run with 1200 children in more than 50 classes scientifically showed how playing music improved children’s reading and verbal skills through improving concentration, memory and self-expression.(1) Younger children who had three more music classes per week and three fewer main curriculums made rapid developments in speech and learned to read with greater ease.

Other effects revealed by the study showed that children learned to like each other more, enjoyed school more (as did their teachers) and were less stressed during the various tests, indicating they were better able to handle performance pressure.

2. Playing music improves the ability to think

Ongoing research at the University of California-Irvine and the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh (2) demonstrate that learning and playing music builds or modifies Neural pathways related to spatial reasoning tasks, which are crucial for higher brain functions like complex maths, chess and science.

The first studies showed that listening to a Mozart sonata temporarily improved a child’s spatial abilities. Further studies compared children who had computer lessons, children who had singing lessons, children who learned music using a Keyboard and children who did nothing additional. The children who had had the Music classes scored significantly higher – up to 35% higher – than the children did Who had computer classes or did nothing additional.(3)

3. Learning music helps under-performing students to improve

Researchers at Brown University in the US (4) discovered that children aged 5-7 years who had been lagging behind in their school performance had caught up with their peers in reading and were ahead of them in math’s after seven months of music lessons. The children’s classroom attitudes and behavior ratings had also Significantly improved, and after a year of music classes were rated as better than the children who had had no additional classes.