Newsweek Cover Story Focuses On Music And Child Development

The editors of Newsweek magazine made one of the boldest statements to date, reinforcing the importance of music - especially in the schools. In its February 19 issue, a cover story on music and the brain declared:

"If more (school) administrators were tuned into brain research ... music ... would be a daily requirement."

Through the media efforts of the American Music Conference, Newsweeks' lead story was called, "Your Child's Brain - How Kids are Wired for Music, Math and Emotions." The in-depth article provides great insight into how the human brain works and in a sidebar titled, "Why Do Schools Flunk Biology?" the authors boldly state:

"Music trains the brain for higher forms of thinking."

The article quotes directly from research at the University of California - Irvine,which proved that a link exists between music and human intelligence. The article exposes the subject to a worldwide circulation of more than 3 million. AMC has been supplying the media support for this research.

"But that's just the tip of the iceberg," stated Larry R. Linkin, AMC officer and the President/CEO of NAMM. "As a founding co-sponsor of the National Coalition for Music Education—along with the Music Educators National Conference and the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, Inc.—we strongly urge everyone to do their part in seeing that the article gets into the hands of the right people." He noted that school administrators, education policy makers, civic and community organizations, and arts councils all should be "tuned in". And he suggested Members of the music community could also call the article to the attention of their friends and reference it in their newsletters and other promotional materials.