Countless studies have proven time and time again that a student’s performance in school is greatly increased when they learn to play an instrument. The studies discuss the “Mozart Effect,” which says that listening to Mozart’s music can increase a child’s ability for spatial reasoning, as well as help brain development. The studies also cite the fact that many of history’s most intelligent men, like Albert Einstein and Benjamin Franklin, played one or more musical instruments. These studies are wrong. Students should not be required to learn an instrument, because it does not help them perform better in school. This fact was proven by a study done by Harvard researchers. The study was relatively simple. The researchers gathered together 29 parents and their four year olds. The children were then asked to complete a vocabulary test. After the test was completed, the children were randomly split up into two separate groups. One group was designated to take music lessons for a year, while the other took visual art lessons for a year. When the year was up, the children were tested on cognition, vocabulary, math, and spatial tasks. These tests were chosen because they are more representative of intelligence than a simple IQ test. The students who had taken music lessons for a year performed almost identically to the students who had not taken any music lessons. The only difference was that some of the music-lesson students performed marginally better on one of the spatial
Alexander Popes famous saying goes "To err is human, to forgive is divine" (Line 525). Everyone makes a mistake every once in a while, everybody sins on way or another, and in the end almost all of them seek forgiveness. The very nature of people is to get upset and feel resentful towards those who have done some harm to them in any way. Humans tend to remember the undesirable actions that others inflict upon them. Forgiveness is overcoming the feeling of resentment towards the person who has done wrong to us. In the novel "The Glass Castle" by Jeanette Walls, Jeanette is constantly forgiving her parents for their unsuitable choices; choices that often leave them impoverished, emaciated, and in abhorrent conditions. Jeanette proves that even
Throughout history music has played an important role in society, whether it was Mozart moving people with his newest opera or the latest album from the Beatles. Where would society be today without music? With schools cutting their music programs, the next Mozart may not get his chance to discover his amazing talent. Music programs are essential to education. To fully understand this one must understand how music helps the human body, why schools have cut music programs, and why people should learn music.
* ““95% percent of Americans believe that music is a key-component in a child’s well-rounded education, 80% percent of respondents agreed that music makes the participants smarter; 78% believe that learning a musical instrument helps students perform better in other subject areas; and 88% believe participation in music helps teach children discipline” (Hurley 3),” (par 1).
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First, When children play an instrument "he or she [develops] key brain [functions] that enhance musical learning but also academic and social skills which [...] [improve] memory and the ability to differentiate sounds and speech". As a result, this could mean that students who do not play a musical instrument will be lacking an important aspect that instrument playing students do have. Second, music has done so much that "research has proven that access to a quality music education engages students in the classroom and increases graduation rates". Participating with an instrument can ultimately help students perform better in an academic setting which can take students very far in life. Lastly, Public polls in America show that " 89% of principals feel that a high-quality music education program contributes to their school achieving higher graduation rates".
He has influenced musical appreciation throughout the world and has created some of the best works of musical art in his time. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born January 27, 1756 in Salzburg Austria to Leopold and Maria Pertl Mozart. He was a pianist and a composer. Mozart created a string of operas, concertos, symphonies, and sonatas that shaped todays classical music. Mozart died in Vienna, Austria on December 5, 1791. Mozart made a positive impact on Musical culture by composing some of the best-known operas since the age of five. Mozart was inspired by a childhood influence of this genre of music, he composed operas since the age of five and his music influenced a scientific study called the “Mozart Effect.”
Is the "Mozart effect" a fact or a myth? How can one type of music affect the intelligence of a human being?
While the intelligence quotient can be shaped from a variety of sources ranging from biological to environmental influences, the correlation between an increase of IQ with classical music cannot be implied with a cause and effect relationship without consideration for other variables or a different interpretation of the relationship. Since the research did not specify the control variables within the experiments done on mothers, it is important to consider third variable problems in situations where the parents of the fetus may have an influence on the development of the baby based on their actions and genetics. For example, while all of the mothers were subjected to the same classical music, the variations between the habits of each individual may have effected the results through differences in the development of each infant (e.g. drugs, unhealthy diet, lack of eating).
And they took a group of 6 year olds and gave them weekly singing and piano lessons for 9 months. And in this study they took a baseline IQ score at the before the 1st grade and then taken again at the beginning of 2nd grade with the time in between provided for the experiment. And they found that on average the kids that received the lesson IQ was 3 points higher than it was 9 months earlier. This might be in part because when learning to play an instrument much like learning a new language you brain is required to build new connections and remap the network of the brain to work faster. Another study that was published from Christopher Johnson at the University of Kansas was out to prove if this raise in IQ also would affect the testing scores of children. And they found that in an elementary school with good education in the arts scored 20% higher in both English and Math standardized test, than an elementary school with little to no music education. Johnson sums it up by saying, “Schools that have rigorous programs and high-quality music education and arts teacher probably have high-quality teachers in other areas. If you have an environment where there are a lot of people doing creative, smart, great things, even people who aren’t doing that have a tendency to go up and do better.”
Knowing about our early years helps us to understand children and also widen and deepen our knowledge about ourselves (Robinson, 2008) When talking about psychological development in children and how various forms of abuse affect them, we must first discuss the two major developmental theories by Erik Erikson and Jean Piaget. The nature of development itself is dynamic, changing, exciting and challenging. “Before we can think about the world and our experiences we must first get to know it. We need to be able to have certain basic concepts in place, have ways of communicating effectively and understand differences between all types of life experiences we encounter” (Robinson, 2008, 13).
Perhaps the most tangible benefit of music education for students is the increase in their performance in the classroom. People often say, “Music makes you smarter,” but where is the evidence? As South Dakota State University’s Professor Kevin Kessler eloquently stated via email, “How were you
The Mozart effect is a study which showed that listening to classical music such as Mozart’s stimulates the brain and can have a positive effect on social, cognitive, and physical skills (“10 Benefits”). In 1993, Frances H. Rauscher had 36 college age students listen to either: Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major, a relaxation tape, or silence. He then tested their spatial task performance (Smith). The results showed that students who listened to Mozart's music score increased by 8-9 points. The media had a field day with this and the news spread like wildfire. After the first study was released, exaggerated claims that Mozart's music increased IQ spread throughout the news. Soon, it became popularly understood that listening to Mozart would make you smarter (Smith).
There have been continuous studies that have found positive links between learning to play a musical instrument and mental development. In the article, “Music of the hemispheres: Playing instruments gives brains a boost,” Rachel Ehrenberg discusses the benefits of learning an instrument, saying “Evidence suggests that with musical training comes
Does classical music really help you study better? Many recent research studies show that music idoes in fact improve cognitive thinking. In 1993, researchers at the University of California at Irvine discovered the so-called Mozart Effect - that college students “who listened to ten minutes of Mozart's Sonata for Two Pianos in D major K448 before taking an IQ test scored nine points higher” than when they had sat in silence or listened to relaxation tapes. Other studies have also indicated that it doesn’t matter the artist; people retain information better if they hear classical or baroque music while studying.
Is playing an instrument beneficial to the future of students? Music is important in the lives of students. It is said that when pregnant women listen to classical music the baby’s brain develops better. This is known as the Mozart effect. The performing arts are needed in schools, but are slowly being taken away from the students. Students who have the ability do more won’t have the chance. Studies have proven that music intelligence does cause higher grade averages. In future it is said that musical instruments will no longer be needed, because now instruments can be played on the computer instead of hiring a whole symphony just hire one person to create the beat you want. Being part of the band teaches students to work with each other even if you don’t like each other, similar to how it is in the workplace. Playing a musical instrument at any point in your life preferably at a young age does help you out more. The longer you play the more beneficial it is to you. Music teaches math in ratios. Music advances the brain better than non-music students at a young age.