at you shouldn't force-feed Mozart to your two-year-old, it doesn't mean that all this research has gone to waste. Educators in particular are learning everything they can about music's affect on children, and using them very effectively in the classrooms. The children, meanwhile, are the ones who end up benefiting the most.Elizabeth Lloyd Mayer, PhD, a psychoanalyst at the University of California-Berkeley, summed up the general idea by saying, "The more we discover about how the brain works, the more we recognize how crucial music is to children's learning." (Cassidy 47) At a time when schools are cutting back music programs in an attempt to reduce the budget, her comment brings new light to the issue. Some schools understand the need to integrate music with a child's education. At the Ashley River Creative Arts Elementary School, administrators would not dream of changing their approach. This public school in Charleston, SC integrates music and other arts into its curriculum. As a result, it has the second-highest academic rating in the country, even though many of their students come from underprivileged backgrounds. As one might expect, there is a great demand for admission and the waiting list for the school numbers over 1200 students.It's not too surprising that programs such as the one employed at Ashley River Elementary work. According to a yet-to-be-published study, a group of ten 3-year-olds in an inner city school were given music lessons for 30 minutes a day. Lessons consisted of both singing and piano keyboarding. After six months, all the kids showed significant improvement when their spatial skills were tested. In fact, the inner-city kids scored below the national average on these spatial tests before the music lessons; afterward, their scores nearly doubled.. Researchers are not surprised at the results. Whether children are solving math problems or reading for comprehension, they need the skill to look a...
