Succeeding in school has become increasingly important. Colleges have gotten exponentially more difficult to get accepted into without high grade point averages, making student success in the classroom imperative if students want to get into prestigious Universities. You, as parents, might try to help out with your children’s extremely high stress levels. However, new studies show that today’s high school students are working harder than past students, leading to increased levels of stress.

Many of today’s parents struggle to provide their children with outlets that lead to an increase in academic success, though a study conducted by Arnaud Cabanac, Leonid Perlovsky, Marie-Claude Bonniot-Cabanac, and Michael Cabanac suggests that music classes are the way to success.

The group of researchers from De Rochebelle School, Harvard University, Airforce Research Laboratory, and the Faculty of Medicine at Laval University argue that music aids in multiple different aspects of students’ health and academic performance. They state that music helps students overcome stress, direct more time toward stressful, complicated tasks, and attain higher grades. These facts alone should indicate to parents that they need to start enrolling their children in music classes if they want to give their children a better chance at academic success.

The “Mozart Effect””

Classical music has been theorized to aid in academic performance for decades. Modern research has pointed at the existence of a “Mozart Effect”, which is defined as “a short-term improvement on ‘spatial temporal reasoning,’” according to Cabanac. Spatial temporal reasoning might sound extremely complicated, though it simply means that students are better at dealing with stressful experiences. This effect has been linked to decreasing the amount of stress experienced by students, helping students complete more stressful tasks without leading to higher levels of anxiety.

But how does one get the “Mozart Effect” to occur? Cabanac and his team conducted additional research into this effect and found that merely listening to classical music helped students overcome the stress that comes from stressful experiences. They state that “overcoming stress is necessary for accumulating knowledge,” showing others that music classes are helpful when it comes to learning.

While exposure to music can make the “Mozart Effect” occur, musical expertise leads to a more enhanced effect. Students enrolled in music classes begin to gain this expertise through the exposure of musical performance, making the exposure to music more beneficial when it comes to overcoming stress. These music classes can include chorus, orchestra, band, music theory, etc. Previous studies have shown that musical performers show an increase in brain activity due to the different ways they process music.

With this being said, the best way for parents to take advantage on the “Mozart Effect” is to encourage their children to take music classes, as the experience of learning how to play an instrument will lead to a better effect.

Music and Education in Modern Research

While the “Mozart Effect” has oftentimes just been noted as a theory, Cabanac and his team decided to conduct a test to analyze if music classes really lead to an increase in academic success.

They decided to conduct a study utilizing students within their 2^nd-5^th years of high school. Music classes were a requirement within the students’ first 2 years of schooling, though they became optional in the remaining three years. They then wrote down the average grades of the 560 students by their grade level. They did this to see if there was a difference in grades between music and non-music students.

The results of their study showed that students participating in musical education classes achieved better grades overall in every subject. In fact, most of the results weren’t even close, with the largest gap between music and non-music students being a 5% difference in their mathematics grade. Studies have shown that mathematical anxiety impacts almost half of all Elementary school students, so why not try and alleviate this stress by encouraging your children to join musical education classes?

Sure, some study says that music helps students overcome stress. But why should you, as a parent, care? Why not just enroll your children in a sport like every other parent at the neighborhood cookout? While sports have also been noted to increase academic performance, the academic impacts are less apparent than the academic impacts that stem from music. Music has a clear connection when it comes to academic performance. Placing your children in musical education classes allows for an increase in exposure to music, helping your children become the most academically successful they can possibly be.

Why Music is the Best Path to Academic Success

Music is the most effective way that parents can help when it comes to their children’s academic success. Not only do musical classes provide a creative outlet for your children, but they also improve overall classroom performance. With the increase in the rigor experienced by students today, and the increase in the difficulty of getting accepted into prestigious universities, any action that works to lessen student stress should be taken.

Encouraging your children to take musical education classes has the potential to give your children impacts that can change their lives. Start telling your children to put down the basketball and encourage them to pick up an instrument. They will thank you later.