Just coming right out and saying it...

Learning to play an instrument or sing is MORE important than other subjects in school.

The act of learning how to play an instrument or sing strengthens the brain in a way that no other subject comes close to. Music is a full brain workout.

And yet, it is often looked down upon, the first thing cut from schools, and colloquially viewed as a secondary activity to athletics.

I would contend that athletics and music combined are WAY more important than math, science, history or language arts.

How powerful would it be to emphasize the two classes in a school day that unequivocally strengthen the body and the brain?

Is it really a good idea for us to keep kids grinding away at tasks that do not ultimately "have a point" or point them toward meaningful work that they are truly passionate about?

I have always found it funny that kids always ask "why" you do something in a math class, and what the point of doing something was (and yeah I was that kid). And yet, in music class I rarely had kids ask this.

Because it is obvious that learning to physically manipulate the world around you through building skills and kinesthetic memory is not only fun, but beneficial to enriching your entire life.

We have gym and music classes already built into school schedules...now we just have to give kids MORE of them.

It's time to stop calling these classes "specials" and to stop referring to math/science/history/language arts as "core."

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/pNAY6E_I1PU https://www.aarp.org/health/brain-health/info-2023/brain-health-benefits-of-learning-an-instrument.html

https://www.policymattersohio.org/blog/2022/05/04/why-the-arts-matter#:~:text=Students%20who%20have%20experiences%20with,peers%20with%20no%20arts%20education

https://www.usnews.com/education/k12/articles/the-benefits-of-arts-education-for-k-12-students