Music to a Parent's Ears

Posted by Diane Laney Fitzpatrick Jul 11, 2008

I learned so much researching The Argument for Music Education. I've known for a long time that music is good for children for lots of reasons, from birth (or even pre-birth, some believe) through college. But what I didn't know is the correlation between music lessons and higher SAT scores, better math grades and better academic success overall.

In my opinion, the best school districts are those that put a high value on arts education. My own children, in the Fayette County schools in Lexington, Kentucky, were required to take humanities courses starting in middle school. My son was required to attend some type of arts performance or event monthly during his junior year, and their middle school and high school had orchestras, bands and choruses that were top notch.

After reading up on the benefits of music education, it made me glad we offered our children lessons in guitar, piano, clarinet and bassoon, even though there were times when nagging them to practice became something I dreaded.

Now that my children are older, I'm glad we stuck it out and kept the music playing - on one instrument or another - in our house all those years.