Justification to Bring Back the Music: It Increases IQ Scores

This from @jshe and @WeAreTeachers on Twitter:

They linked to a UK study by Janice on the Music Teacher's Blog that had the following findings from Professor Susan Halem, University of London's research:

• "Students who learned music over time, increased their general IQ by 7 points, while drama subjects only increased their IQ by 4.3points.
• Playing an instrument improves general behaviour because it requires a students to trust, respect and compromise with others
• Learning a musical instrument improves behavior, memory and intelligence
• Musically trained students retain up to a fifth more information"

 I've always heard that there was a correlation between math and music -- that somehow math "primed the neural pathways" that music also passes along - however, in a country (the US) seemingly starved for music education - it looks like that perhaps by removing the extra curriculars, not only have we taken some of the joy out of school - we may have also inadvertently hurt the test scores we are trying so desperately to raise.


Bring back the music.

Of course, there is always the question of correlation or causation, however, this research certainly requires a closer look.

education teaching music test scores learning news innovation school improvement extra curricular drama