Does Music Make Kids Smarter?
Call it the “marketing effect.” One day, researchers come out with data showing that kids who listen to Mozart perform better on tests; the next, toy companies are selling a slew of products that blast Sonata in C. Meanwhile, under pressure to trim budgets and bring up scores in math and reading, schools across the country are eliminating music classes. It’s enough to make even the most music-savvy parent feel a little tone deaf. “It would be very easy for me to jump on the proverbial bandwagon and say, ‘music makes you smarter,’ but I think you have to read the research carefully,” says Jeffrey Bush, Music Education Professor at the Herberger College School of Music at Arizona State University. “Some studies such as the Mozart effect have been grossly over-generalized.” The “Mozart effect,” refers to research showing that children who listened to Mozart before taking a test performed better. The catch? The effects only lasted about 20 minutes. Other research may have been skewed by so
