On Thu, 17 Mar 2016 04:28:49 +0000 (UTC), Beach Runner
<
lowh...@gmail.com> said:
>I have to admit, I accidently posted the URL about
>music and the brain. I thought I was in another window
>where it would have been relevant.
>
>Actually, the study of the psychology and neurosciences of how
>people learn music, and the effect of serious music study on the
>brain has been one of my prime areas of research and expertise
>for the last 35 years or so.
>
>There is a lot of great scholarly research in the area. So much of what
>people think of as "Talents" are the result of early learning or can be taught.
>In fact, the origin of the word "Talent" was a Roman coin, and with enough
>talents you could do anything.
The Roman talent weighed over 70 pounds. That's some coin :-)
A propos of that, the biblical kikar was probably the same or about
the same weight as the Roman talent. The gold gathered for the
portable sanctuary in the desert, as reported in my professional sedra
last week (its common name can be roughly translated as "accounting"),
was 29 talents 730 shekels, about a metric ton, worth about $40
million at yesterday's closing price.
>There really is not question that serious study of music has been
>shown to improve academic performance, abstract thinking and even intelligence.
>It has been shown that people who study music develop data structures in their brain, MRI and PET scans show these same data structures light up and are active
>during abstract concepts in math, science and physics.
>
>Einstein credited his abilities on learning the violin as a toddler. It was his lifelong love.
>
>Once Horowitz gave a concert at Princeton. Afterwards there was a party for Horowitz and the faculty. Einstein brought his fiddle and cajoled Horowitz into playing a violin concerto with him. After about 15 minutes and very frustrated Horowitz said to Einstein "What's the matter, can't you count."
>
>If we want to create a nation of scientists and engineers we don't want to teach
>them rote arithmetic, we want them to study music, solve problems, fail at things and learn to pick themselves back up, and work with other people. none of which is done in most schools today.
Nor will it be done while the schools remain effectively a government
monopoly and not accountable to parents.
--
Yisroel "Godwrestler Warriorson" Markov - Boston, MA Member
www.reason.com -- for a sober analysis of the world DNRC
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