“Enough has been said to show that music has a power of forming the character, and should therefore be introduced into the education of the young.” Aristotle, ca. 350 B.C.

New brain research shows not only that music is fun, but also that it improves our brain development and even enhances skills in other subjects such as reading and math . . . Music has the ability to facilitate language acquisition, reading readiness and general intellectual development; to foster positive attitudes and to lower truancy in middle and high school; to enhance creativity; and to promote social development, personality adjustment and self-worth. Norman M. Weinberger, “The Music in Our Minds,” Educational Leadership, Vol. 56, No. 3, November 1998.

“I don’t think I’d have been President if it hadn’t been for music . . . It taught me both discipline and creativity. It taught me how to be an individual and how to play on a team. It taught me how to take initiative and how to be patient . . . If you’re gonna be good at it, it requires your mind and your body; it requires your heart and your soul. And when you give everything to something, it unleashes your dreams and gives you the confidence that you can live your dreams and therefore it is very good preparation for life . . . Music can give you your dreams. It will teach you hard work, it will break your heart and make you so happy, you can’t stand it—if you stay with it.” Bill Clinton, former President, United States of America

A student making music experiences the “simultaneous engagement of senses, muscles and intellect." Brain scans taken during musical performances show that virtually the entire cerebral cortex is active when musicians are playing.” Norman M. Weinberger, 1998

Nowhere in the spectrum of the effects of arts education on cognitive functioning are impacts more clear than in the rich archive of studies—many very recent—that show connections between music learning or musical experiences and the fundamental cognitive capability called spatial reasoning (the abstract reasoning used for understanding relationships between objects, such as calculating a proportion or playing chess). Critical Links, 155

After completing the Music Spatial-Temporal Math program (a curriculum with piano keyboard training that concentrates on proportional reasoning, fractions and symmetry), second grade students in an urban school performed at the same level as fourth grade students from a similar school. The second graders also dramatically increased their national Stanford 9 math scores. Gordon Shaw, et al., “Music Spatial-Temporal Math Program for 2nd Graders Enhances Advanced Math Concepts and Stanford 9 Math Scores,” M.I.N.D. Institute, 2000

“I would teach children music, physics and philosophy, but most importantly music, for the patterns of music and all the arts are the keys of learning. Music is a more potent instrument than any other for education, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul.” Plato, ca. 360 B.C.

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Funding for Woodruff 's Education Initiative was generously provided by The Goizueta Foundation, Robert W. Woodruff Foundation, Inc., The Kendeda Fund & an Anonymous Donor.

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