ers received no musical training at all (Bower 143). At the begining, middle and end of the study, the subjects were tested on five spatial reasoning tasks (143). After only four months, scores on the test to assemble a puzzle to form a picture improved dramatically for the group with the musical training, while the control group didn't, even though both groups started out with the same scores (143). It can be stated that this kind of improvement may not be substantial enough to alter the way people are fundamentally taught, but its results cannot be ignored. Rauscher explains, "Music instruction can improve a child's spatial intelligence for a long time, perhaps permanently" (qtd. in Bower 143). Implementing such changes and improvements into a young child's learning could have great effects on them in the future when dealing with the same spatial reasoning skills. With its resulting improvements in spatial reasoning, music can also be a very helpful tool when actually implementing it into the classroom and intergradting it with basic school curriculum. In New York City, a program called Learning through an Expanded Arts Program, or LEAP, has been going on for a while and provides both music and the arts is implemented into the school curriculum to improve scholastic scores of children at all levels (Dean and Gross 614). One way in which music is implemented is with math. They call it "musical math," in which the teacher incorporates rhythm with counting and gaining a grasp on the fundamentals of math (618). With the rhythm, they are able to learn basic elements of math like fraction and multiplication. Christine Bard, the LEAP consultant explains, "Music helps teach the precognitive skills. It gives students the capacity to trust themselves by providing internal discipline through a highly repetitive structure" (qtd. in Dean and Gross 618). On the whole, students' feeling of self-confidence and accomplishment are great and most i...
