ng music, the person will be capable of an improved sense of self-assurance, higher level of sensitivity, and an over-all improved sense of well-being. School-aged people are known to have high levels of stress and anxiety because of lifes everyday pressures, and music has been proven to be an effective release valve for these problems. Because 93% of American citizens believe that music is a very important part of a childs education, it is surprising how much money is actually being taken away from the programs which take an active role in giving this valuable part of education to a child(Russell). This vital money seems to go elsewhere in the schools, such as to the math or the science departments. Some researchers argue , "Music courses may not turn students into musicians; but on the other hand, chemistry classes dont necessarily make them chemists either" (Kupferberg 1). Music "opens doors"(Russell) to things that children could hardly seem to be imaginable. For them, the opportunities appear magnificent and endless. When a child is doing poorly in a subject, s/he, if given the opportunity, may have music to look to as an area of success, instead of failure, and this has the potential to greatly improve childs self-esteem. There have been experiments done with pre-school age children to prove whether or not music helps with spatial-temporal knowledge, the ability to conceive the visual, physical world around them. The children were divided into three different groups. One group received thirty minute group singing lessons and ten to fifteen minutes of individual keyboard instruction per week. The second group was given computer lessons, and the third group received no treatment of any kind. The group involved in the music lessons scored up to approximately thirty four percent higher on the tests that followed the experiment than did the other two groups(Russell). Thus proving a point. Music has also been proven as a p...
