A Well-Tempered Mind: Using Music To Help Children Listen and Learn.

A WELL-TEMPERED MIND: Using Music To Help Children Listen and Learn. Peter Perret and Janet Fox. New York: Dana Press, 2006. 231 pp. $12.00. A Well-Tempered Mind shows that educators can use music education to enhance children's creation, cognition, and logic. The idea for this book is fascinating and interesting and it encourages educators to think about how they can use music to help children listen and learn. This book gives us a good example of how using music can improve children's learning abilities. In the early 1990s, the first author, the music director of the Winston-Salem (North Carolina) Symphony, heard a report on National Public Radio about a study showing that young children who learned to play the keyboard scored higher than their peers on tests of spatial-temporal reasoning. This eventually led to the experiences shared in the book, which took place at Bolton Elementary School in Winston-Salem. The school had many at-risk students, including those with low IQ, and children from impoverished and/or broken homes. Even so, as little as 30 minutes of group music instruction, three times a week, made significant differences in the students' reading and math scores. After only a few years, Bolton was reclassified from an at-risk school to an exemplary one. The book provides a section that gives parents some simple ideas to implement music as a tool to aid children.

I was amazed at the ways that music can assist learning and enhance cognition. This method has much potential for influencing future curriculum in a positive way. Perhaps through music instruction, we can reach those students who are at-risk of have learning disabilities. Reviewed by Wei Yuan Lu, Ph.D. student at Barry University, Miami Shores, FL