“Music is what makes the heart happy,” is what many scholars say. And music has always had a precious place in the American school system. We believe that music develops areas that cannot be developed otherwise. It is said that when you play a musical instrument, the right hemisphere of your brain gets activated. This ‘artistic’ hemisphere is the one responsible for creativity, and once it is exercised, can also develop other traits in the person.
According to some studies, people who are more artistic tend to be more compassionate. I am not saying they develop the ramifications in their brain in charge of ‘love’, but they are more in-tune with non-reasoning parts of the brain that can provide innovative solutions to old problems. Artistic people are creative and have a more positive outlook on life.
I can attest to this myself. When I was about 7 years old, my family and I joined a church. The pastor was an old friend of my father. They had worked for the same company about 15 years back, the church was just starting, and still had that smell of ‘new’ in each one of the sermons. As I grew older, I started to show abilities for music. My grandmother had been a pianist when she was young, and I would try and play her keyboard when I had the chance.
I would play it for a couple of hours each day, and I started to play some songs after only listening to them once. A deacon at our church told my father that I could be part of the music ministry group at church. So, my father went to the store and got me a very cool keyboard. I started practicing with the group that same weekend. I learned the songs and started to gain a lot of confidence. This new facet helped me gain some new friends, which would prove useful because I was very shy then.
Many countries have also followed this lead and are including music lessons for all their students and not only the top performers. This has helped those students to have an after-school activity that engages their mind and senses. When a student’s mind is occupied doing something positive, it will not be thinking about something negative, and that’s just common sense.
One such teacher also works at Baldwin Hills Elementary School in Los Angeles. She believes children should be exposed to ‘good’ music, the classics if you will. You won’t believe the audience response when she chooses one of the most famous songs performed by The Jackson 5. As soon as this video hit the Internet, it started getting a lot of views. Click on the video to find out why!
