The Importance of Music Education In School
There are often arguments about the place of arts in education, but studies show that a well-rounded education turns children into well-rounded adults. Music can offer more to students than just a creative outlet. Music gives kids the cognitive abilities they need to succeed in life. Not only that, it closes the achievement gap between classes that have long plagued our schools. It gives kids confidence and imagination, and is an integral part of a school education. When it comes to music, it isn’t just about shaping the brain, but helps in developing the kind of people we need most in our society. The benefits persist long after a child stops taking lessons.
Language Processing And Memory
Studies have also found that lower-income students who receive high levels of arts engagement are more civic-minded and are more likely to exercise their right to vote, do volunteer work, finish a bachelor's degree and choose a professional career path. Music education also does major work on the language-processing parts of our brains. To learn to read, children need to have "good working memory, the ability to disambiguate speech sounds and make quick sound-to-meaning connection," explains professor Nina Kraus, director of the
Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory at Northwestern University. "Each one of these things really seems to be strengthened with active engagement in playing a musical instrument."
Berkeley Hall School
At Berkeley Hall, our music classes are based on things children like to do: sing, chant rhymes, dance, and keep a beat on anything near at hand. These instincts are directed into learning by first hearing and making music, then, as students advance, reading and writing music. Music instruction begins in nursery and continues through primary and intermediate. In junior high, music electives such as musical theater, vocal performance, and digital composing are offered.
Individual instrument instruction is also offered through our After-School Enrichment Program.
At Berkeley Hall School our mission is to “empower children to fulfill their unlimited, God-given potential as fearless scholars and conscientious citizens.”
Find out more about our academic, arts, and athletic programs by requesting admissions information
HERE.
Back