The performing arts have been proven to increase a child's mind. Yet sports keep the mind and body strong. This is a debate that has being going on for the past 20 years. On whether funding should be used to fund sports or the performing arts. People argue for both sides. Today I am arguing for the performing arts.

Music education being the right of all children it must be taught in appropriate ways suggested by the geographical cultural and social environment (3). And yes, that is true. Every child should have the write to experience. Every person, in every culture is introduced to some form of music. Whether a person lives in Asia, Africa, Italy, or the USA. That person is introduced to the kind of music in that culture. But scientists have said time after time that "Music lessons appear to strengthen the links between brain neutrons and build new spatial reasoning, says psychologist, Frances Rauscher of University of California-Irving.

The thought of teaching music in schools did not even begin until the late 1970's. According to Bill Ivey who is the Chairman, National Endowment for the Arts " By the late 1970's, we began to realize that along with s

Music is not just an art, it is also a subject. Music has the involvement of every subject taught in school. From science to math to even history. For example, Music is history. Music usually reflects the environment and times of its creation often even the country and/or racial feelings (9). Music is also math. It is rhythmically based on the subdivisions of time into fractions, which must be done instantaneously, not worked out on paper (9). But at the end the most important thing is that music is an art. It allows a human being to take all these dry technically, boring, (but difficult) techniques and use them to create emotion. That's one thing science can not duplicate; humanism, feeling, emotion, call it what you will (9). Bob Schaffer of Colorado is a member of the House of Representatives says, " music lovers like myself have long promoted music education as away to inspire creativity, develop discipline and cultivate an appreciation for the arts (11)."

"By the late 1980's, Congress mandated that the National Endowment of the Arts to report on the status of arts education (Ivey, 56). And it was proven that children who study the arts score higher on test, do better in school, and even scored higher on the College Boards SAT's. "Our case for the critical importance of the arts is also bolstered by the College Boards report that students who study the arts in general, and music in particular, score considerably higher on both the verbal and math sections of the SAT (Ivey, 55). " Music has also been shown to do better with high school students, "It has been shown that high school music students have higher grade point averages than non-music students in the same school (6). " Music students are out performing non-music students on the SAT's. College bound seniors with coursework or experience in music performance scored 52 percent higher on the verbal portion and 37 points higher on the math portion.

Other groups have also studied the effects of music and the arts on the brain and on people. J.W. Flohr and D.C. Miller used an electroencephalogram to investigate subtle changes in brain electrical activity (Teaching Music, 41). The study showed that the activity in the temporal regions of the brain were higher then an average child. Proving that music does do something to the brain. Many other groups have done research or have seen what music does to a child or to people

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Approximate Word count = 1626
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)