HOW DO WE STACK UP?

HOW DO WE STACK UP?
One might expect, given our heroic national budget in Education, that we would top the list of nations with our educational product, but we do not. In a report ??? relating to science achievements of 14 year-olds of 17 countries, America ranked 14th from the top. The list is headed by Hungary, then Japan,` then the Netherlands. That might surprise you, particularly since the top ranking country deals with tremendous socio-economic challenges at this time. What is the reason. There is one characteristic that is similar with all three...compulsory music instruction. Hungary requires compulsory voice or instrumental instruction from grades 1 through 8. Japan requires it from grades 1 through 9. And the Netherlands even require musical understanding as part of the secondary exams for college entrance. Does one really have to look abroad to see the influence of musical education on academic success? One need only attend a high school graduation exercise to see the results. Where do the valedictorians come from? They come from the band, the orchestra and the chorus. It is not that these students are “smarter” than the others, but at least for some time during every academic day, their entire brains are active and formatted. It transfers to all the other curricula.