Music lessons - optional extra to Academic study and Sport??

I was recently presented with a situation where a parent decided that her child needed to stop all music lessons because he had been offered a position in a Selective High School NEXT year. It really did set me thinking once more about how sad it is that we see Music tuition and Academic study as mutually exclusive pursuits.

As I pondered on this frustrating, all too frequent situation- for musicians and music teachers alike - yet another article crossed my Inbox, with the delectable title "Musicians are probably smarter than the rest of us". (You can read the full text of the article elsewhere in this blog). I felt a little bit more encouraged that the obvious was actually just that - OBVIOUS! At least to scientists and musicians.

But what about parents? And even more - what about our educators and politicians who seem to be avoid the whole matter of just HOW IMPORTANT the learning of a musical instrument is, from an education and social and health perspective and the from Cradle to the Grave? Why is it that the benefits of learning to play a musical instrument are rarely given media time, other than through the scientists who keep 'discovering' it, or the musicians or teachers like me who keep trying to tell a world that somehow still thinks of music as an optional extra to life's experiences?

If scientists were pointing out how fantastic playing football was to the overall brain capacity of a person from the youngest age right through to old age, I guarantee it would make headlines. In fact, what did make headlines this past week were the results of a examination of the brain of an American football hero, who committed suicide at just 50. The results of those tests showed how damaging continual contact sports are - on nearly every level conceivable, the extent of damage depending on how often and where contact, known or unknown, was made during the short playing life of the sportsperson. Certainly not encouraging, but will it stop people from aspiring to be elite sports people? Perhaps not.

Australia is said to be a sporting nation. We revere our sporting stars, who are often paid large amounts of money to chase a ball around a field. In our society, the money they receive 'proves' that they are important and valuable. Yet, there is hardly a week goes by where we don't hear about some act of stupidity or thuggery or plain outright unlawful behaviour carried out by one of these 'stars' or heroes. We spend hours watching them on TV or in real life. There are TV shows totally dedicated to talking about their sporting achievements or failures, and so we spend more time watching ABOUT them.

Think about how much better it would be to spend an hour or so a week coming along to learn to play an instrument, which you can do for ALL your life and which can be of benefit to you for ALL your life!

Parents - it is your responsibility to see that your children are provided with this advantaged education - i.e. music lessons - and encourage them to see it as a life long enterprise. Music is almost guaranteed to ENHANCE the working of the brain, with no "Use By Date" either.

It seems so simple, doesn't it? So I ask again, why is it not obvious?