Should music be incorporated in school curricula? Why?
Hoo S. Pai
People listen to different kinds of music for different purposes. Some listen to pop music for entertainment, while others even listen to classical music for psychological cure. In addition, a set of research results indicate that listening to Mozart’s music may induce a short-term improvement on the performance of certain kinds of mental tasks. So far, there have been many studies concerning the positive relationship between music and certain areas. Music, therefore, should be incorporated in school curricula because it has educational effects on the linguistic and mathematical achievement on the one hand and the intelligence improvement on the other hand.
Firstly, the linguistic and mathematical achievement by music is one of the most significant effects on the education for children. Some studies were conducted with regard to the effect of music on math and language skills. Maria Spychiger and Jean-Luc Patry investigated the effect of music on math and language learning ability through an experimental study whose subjects were seven to fifteen-year-old children. Likewise, Martin Gardiner examined that of music and art on math and language ability through an experimental study in which the age of research subjects was six to seven years old. Both studies are similar to each other in that results of study showed math and language skills improved. These findings imply more abundant music lessons have to be included in school curricula for the synergistic effect with math and foreign language lessons.
Secondly, the intelligence improvement by music is also one of the most significant effects on the education for children. Frances Rauscher conducted an experiment which was designed one group in two control sessions and one experimental session to find out if listening to the music would affect the students’ scores on tests of spatial reasoning. In next study, Frances Rauscher with her colleague, Gordon Shaw, verified the effect of music, singing, and piano on spatial reasoning abilities through an experiment in which they used one control group and two experimental groups. According to those two studies, abstract and spatial reasoning skills improved. In contrast, Christopher Chabris’ study was different from Frances Rauscher’s studies in that spatial reasoning skills did not significantly improve. No matter what statistical significances are, a lot of researches in connection with effects of music on intelligence exposed a certain correlation of both factors clearly. These findings also imply more various music lessons have to be included in school curricula for students’ intellectual achievement
In short, the implication of empirical studies in regard to the effects on the linguistic and mathematical achievement on the one hand and the intelligence improvement on the other hand is that math and language skills or abstract and spatial reasoning abilities can be improved by any kinds of music lessons. Undoubtedly, in all senses music affects on children’s education, especially math, language, and IQ. To conclude, music should be properly incorporated in school curricula because it has a clear and positive effect on our children’s academic achievement.
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