Music - a language for lifelong learning

I read with interest (and, admittedly, an ulterior motive) this article, which appeared in The West Australian last Wednesday (23/7/14).

http://health.thewest.com.au/news/1508/music-hits-a-note-with-babies

I was pleased to see evidence of the benefits of music for children being presented by someone other than a musician or an educator - someone in the health sciences discussing solid research in favour of music for babies and children.

This particular line stood out for me:

Music is a newborn’s first language, and it remains a tongue that we speak for the rest of our lives.

Music is a newborn's first language...but why, for so many, does it stop when the vernacular starts? Surely with more and more research out there linking music to developing language, to improving memory, to enhancing IQ...why is music and the arts in general one of the first things cut when literacy results are less than satisfactory? Why does it seem as though the only ones fighting for music education are the music educators themselves?

It is a shame that music cannot exist for its own sake in our education systems, for its aesthetics, for the creativity it encourages and the communication it elicits. But even with the evidence pointing towards the benefits of music in other subject areas, and student wellbeing in general, it still struggles to survive in many schools, if at all.

I believe that even an incidental and informal inclusion of music from an early age, even prior to formal schooling, will help set children up. Its inclusion in schools on both a formal and informal level will benefit the student both academically and spiritually.

I hope there will be a day in the not-so-distant future when the music language of babies does not come to a grinding halt because they have learnt to speak, and the two can co-exist.