The Powerful Impact of Music Education on Overall Academic Performance

Many educators and parents have intuitively known for decades that music education plays an important role in a child's academic life. It's the reason why I signed my kids up for guitar & piano classes and why I decided that they would be required to take a minimum of 2 years instruction before they were allowed to quit...if they wanted to!

We don't have any student orchestras near us, but after watching this amazingly beautiful segment on PBS Newshour, I wish we did. I would love to give my kids this experience.

But more importantly, I love that a program called The Harmony Project is making a difference in the lives of low-income children, including Latinos. It is also a grassroots program, started in 2001 by Dr. Margaret Martin, a woman who had an A-HA! moment and decided to turn that idea into reality. The privately funded program provides instruments and free tuition for low-income children for both group and private lessons. 

I would encourage you to watch this segment, embedded below. It is very well done (like everything by PBS Newshour), and if you aren't convinced to enroll your child in music classes, then surely nothing will!

If you live in one of the cities where The Harmony Project is found, perhaps this would be a fantastic opportunity for your child?

¡A tocar un instrumento!