and schools' recent inclination to remove these elements from curricula is among the very damaging aspects of public education these days.

Which is why I've been the loudest critic in my district when it comes to cutting music, art, and PE.

Causality is the key. Do smart or hard-working/persistent kids stick with instrument performance or does instrumental performance produce smart and/or hard-working/persistent kids.

The assumption was the latter was true--music education bred either discipline or smarts. But the research always hedged by saying that this is, really, a correlation.

A month or so ago research claimed that it was mere correlation. The researchers had extensive controls and when they ran the regression claimed that the correlation lost all statistical significance. So it's the former. Discipline and/or smarts permits more music participation.

YEs it helps them,and as others state, it is a foreign language. All three started band in the 6th grade. Marching band was/is crucial for two of them, one is in Grad School for his instrument and contemplating a PhD in performance...Then there's me who can't carry a tune in a bucket. I hated piano, had to take it for 3 painful years as a preteen and hated every single minute of it. I can find middle C and that's it today. I did enjoy Chorus in high school, but wasn't very good in that class. Just great for meeting young ladies and a great way to finish up the school day, easy class....