A Harvard-based study has found that children who study a musical instrument for at least three years outperform children with no instrumental training—not only in tests of auditory discrimination and finger dexterity (skills honed by the study of a musical instrument), but also on tests measuring verbal ability and visual pattern completion (skills not normally associated with music).

The study, published October 29 in the online, open-access journal PLoS ONE, was led by Drs. Gottfried Schlaug and Ellen Winne.

A total of 41 eight- to eleven-year-olds who had studied either piano or a string instrument for a minimum of three years were compared to 18 children who had no instrumental training. Children in both groups spent 30-40 minutes per week in general music classes at school, but those in the instrumental group also received private lessons learning an instrument (averaging 45 minutes per week) and spent additional time practicing at home.

While it is no surprise that the young musicians scored significantly higher than those in the control group on two skills closely related to their music training (auditory discrimination and finger dexterity), the more surprising result was that they also scored higher in two skills that appear unrelated to music—verbal ability (as measured by a vocabulary IQ test) and visual pattern completion (as measured by the Raven’s Progressive Matrices). And furthermore, the longer and more intensely the child had studied his or her instrument, the better he or she scored on these tests.

Children who study a musical instrument for at least three years outperform children with no instrumental training, a new study has found. (Credit: iStockphoto/Alex Potemkin)

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A recent phenomenon that is being used by millions across the world today namely online education is known to having its own pro’s and cons. Even though research has shown that the acquisition of online degrees has played a major roll in educating the masses, there are countless people who believe eLearning is nothing but a burden.

An absolute fact about the acquisition of online degrees is that is provides students the capability to bring education right in to their homes by making use of various websites that offer free courses and online colleges and universities which offer full-fledge online degree programs. This simply leads us to the fact that studying online is convenient and flexible at the same time. Online learners are able to access their courses with a simple click and study at their own pace, whenever and from wherever they feel most comfortable. Then there is the fact that online education provides more individual attention as compared to traditional classroom setting. If an individual has a query, all s/he has to do is send an email to the online faculty, or chat to them through live chat, or leave a message on the discussion board and s/he would get the help they need.

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One of the more consistent, ongoing suggestions for improving America’s educational system centers upon the creation of greater competition amongst public schools. The reason for the steady drumbeat centers upon a belief that a change to the free market system would be one of the best methods for creating better educational opportunities for children.

In direct response to the push for greater competition, forty states across America have now initiated legislation to allow the construction of new public schools called charter schools. Minnesota was the first state to pass laws regarding charter schools, doing so in 1991.

The concept is definitely catching on. Today, according to USCharterSchools.org, there are nearly 4,000 charter schools across our country educating more than 1.1 million children. The state of California, the second to enact such legislation, has more than 600 such schools educating about one-fifth of all charter school students.

While the number of schools continues to grow, large numbers of Americans, many even within the field of education, simply do not know what a charter school really consists of or how this new school concept differs from traditional public schools. Today at OpenEducation.net, we provide our readers the fundamentals of the charter school concept.

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Any career goals that you might dream off, they can happen with the help of an accredited online college degree. If your degree wasn’t finished in the past and you’re working right now, an online college degree is what you need. Below are a few facts on online degrees.

Pros of Online Degrees

A lot of people think that online degrees have lots of disadvantages. But, you should also know their advantages, if you’re going to learn online. These are a few of them.

- They’re just as easy or hard as any other traditional course. If the school has the needed accreditation and the school is good, it’s just as valuable as a regular course that is done in a campus. You can use online degrees to find a job.

- You decide when you learn. You don’t have to juggle work and other routines to make room for courses. You can do them whenever you want, so it works great even for parents that stay at home to take care of their kids. In most cases, these online courses ask you to download the tasks and lessons.

- Taking online classes is easiest as you can study anywhere you want, with just an internet connection being needed. If you’re a frequent traveler then this is a great feature.

- They’re much more comfortable and easy. You get to choose how you dress while you take them, where you take them or if you’re staying in bed or at a desk. It’s all up to you.

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by Jan Hunt

Q. My kids go to a family school. I spend a lot of energy helping them learn about the things that they are inspired by. Am I hurting my kids by letting them go to school? Why unschooling? They seem to just love school.

A. I’m glad to hear that you’re so pleased with your children’s school, and I’m especially happy that you are also helping them to learn at home. You haven’t given their ages, but my guess is that they’re still young. Even the best schools tend to get more structured, and to move further away from what children really need, as they move up in grades.

Research has consistently shown, for example, that in the early grades, most of the questions are asked by the students, but by grades three or four and on to graduation, most of the questions are asked by the teachers. This is an important consideration for two reasons.

First, the best way to learn anything is to explore whatever we’re most interested in at that precise moment. If a child is asked a question, it would be an unlikely coincidence if the teacher guessed what the child’s greatest interest was at that time, and even if the teacher could, it would be very difficult for any teacher to cover all of the students’ individual topics of interest.

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Much has been made of the need to better engage the current crop of students dubbed “digital natives.” This latest generation, having grown up immersed in technology, is deemed to have unique learning needs because of their extensive exposure to technology at such a young age.

For science teachers seeking to increase engagement with this group of learners, a research paper by Constance Steinkuehler and Sean Duncan offers an intriguing suggestion. In the “Scientific Habits of Mind in Virtual Worlds” (pdf) set for publication next spring in the Journal of Science Education and Technology, the co-authors offer a net generation approach to teaching the scientific method.

Video Game Research
Clive Thompson, reporting for Wired.com, summarizes the suggested method nicely. In an interview with Steinkuehler, a game researcher at the University of Wisconsin, Thompson notes that the professor essentially stumbled across the concept while playing the game Lineage.

Steinkuehler notes that at the time she was immersed in the game Lineage most of her guild members were teenage boys. The professor was impressed with how well these young men were able to figure out how to beat the game’s bosses.

Turns out the teenage boys were so into the game they were actually building Excel spreadsheets to record game information. The boys would record what potions affected the bosses and which attacks caused what damage.

In essence the boys were making a prediction as to how they might beat the game then recording the results of that prediction. Those results would create new ideas which in turn would be tested out. In addition, Steinkuehler noted that the teenagers were often arguing about the next trial as well as what might be the outcome of the effort.

As Steinkuehler points out, these young men were in fact practicing the fundamentals of science and implementing the basic aspects of the scientific method. As Thompson notes, Steinkuehler found her realization was both “fascinating and provocative.”

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This week need not be back-to-school week. Parents as well as their kids can benefit from home education

It is back-to-school this week. All over the country, stressed parents made last-minute dashes to the shops to force children to try on clumpy school shoes. Then they got up early, hurried their children into cars or on to buses, got stuck in jams, arrived later than intended and said a rushed goodbye. Then they found that the children had gone. Relief may have been mixed with melancholy, loss and a hope that the children were all right behind those high windows, told what to do by strangers.

The return to school is a well-established part of the journey of life. It seems normal, right and inevitable. But actually it is none of these things. Yes, it is normal in the early 21st century. But if modern civilisation started about 10,000 years ago, this way of treating children has been “normal” only for the last 2 per cent of the time. It is a new, artificial construct designed to provide education at low cost. It certainly was not created to provide a pleasant or socialising experience for children.

Schools are not clearly “right”, either. People tend to think that what everyone does and what they themselves experienced must be right. But there is nothing obviously ideal about delivering your children to other people who do not love them as you do, and who are likely to teach them things with which you may disagree. And sending children to school is not inevitable. Under the law, children must be educated. But they do not have to be educated at a school. There is another way.

Home education is not for everyone - not even a large minority. It is a luxury in most cases. The parent who becomes a home teacher earns no money. There have to be savings, or partners, husbands or wives must be willing to pay the bills. But lots of well-educated wives do not work and could save money by home educating. For those who can find a way, home-educating is a glorious, liberating, empowering, profoundly fulfilling thing to do. Far more people should try it. At present it is estimated that about 50,000 children are taught this way. The number has jumped from a decade ago but is still very few compared with America.

I have just finished two years of teaching my younger daughter, Alex, now 11. We have become very close. Many fathers see their children at supper time and a bit more at weekends. Alex and I were with each other all day, every weekday, in all sorts of places and circumstances. We knew and shared thoughts, ideas and feelings. I believe the closeness that we developed will benefit our relationship for the rest of our lives.

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The Onion is well known for its satiric look at the news. Two weeks ago the site posted a piece on the opening day of school for first-grader, Connor Bolduc, 6.

It was a stark contrast to our post celebrating the start of a new school year. Whereas we attempted to offer an upbeat look by offering our eight videos to get the teacher juices flowing, the Onion sought to look at the opening of another year from the viewpoint of a youngster forced to give up free play for the drudgery of compulsory education.

Compulsory Eduation
The Onion portrayal begins:

“Connor Bolduc, 6, experienced the first inkling of a coming lifetime of existential dread Monday upon recognizing his cruel destiny to participate in compulsory education for the better part of the next two decades, sources reported.”

“‘I don’t want to go to school,’ Bolduc told his parents, the crushing reality of his situation having yet to fully dawn on his naïve consciousness. ‘I want to play outside with my friends.’

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Raising children has likely never been more challenging than it is today. The parenting editor of eHow notes in the first two lines of How to Overcome the Challenges of Raising Children:

“Children do not come with a user’s manual nor with a lifetime guarantee. What they do come with is challenges.”

Adding to the complexity for today’s moms and dads is a plethora of information. Too much, maybe. In fact, while there is a wealth of advice available to support parents on the challenging journey, all too often, the instructions of one expert totally contrasts if not patently contradicts that of another.

Kindergarchy
Over at the WeeklyStandard.com, Joseph Epstein, a contributing editor to the online magazine, would certainly not be considered a child expert. However, Epstein has authored a very unique assessment of the changing place of children in American landscape.

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