Music Students and Academic Growth

IF or years, dating back as far as the early 1900s, proponents of public school music education have proclaimed that student participation such activities as band, choir, and orchestra has a positive effect on everything from academic achievement to self-discipline, from citizenship to personal hygiene. In 1919, Will Earhart, president of the Music Supervisors National Conference (later to become the Music Educators National Conference), argued that music enhances knowledge the areas of mathematics, science, geography, history, foreign language, physical education, and vocational training.1 Interest relationships among seemingly disparate disciplines is not a thing of the past. Recent emphasis on interdisciplinary study, along with the uncertain future of many school subjects, has provoked renewed interest cross-curricular research. James Hanshumaker of the University of Southern California has compiled two thorough bibliographies of various research studies addressing relationships between music and academic achievement.2 He concludes that in addition