The popularity of music education in schools comes and goes in alignment with the philosophical view held by educators and the community and the debate on the benefits or alternatively the lack of benefits of music education in school is ongoing historically and traditionally in education. However, the actual benefits derived from music education are only recently being actually understood and acknowledged. The acknowledgment of these benefits established by scientific research should effectively put an end to this debate of such a long nature and replacing this debate should be dissemination of the benefits of music in education and a focus on how to ensure that all students are in receipt of the marvelous benefits provided by musical education to the other areas of learning and achievement in the lives of students who receive this benefit.
             The work of Ken Petress entitled: "The Importance of Music Education" states that the decision of what is taught in schools in the United States belongs to "teachers, principals, local school boards, state education agencies, regional accrediting bodies, and, in the case of colleges and universities, department, college, and institutional curriculum committees." ( ) Shaping those decisions is much more than "what is best for students to learn' and includes factors such as: (1) school finances; (2) staff training and skills, (3) local traditions; and (4) community and parental support. (Petress, nd) Other subjects which are common yet not universal "over time or place" include subjects relating to "economics, foreign languages and the arts." (Petress, nd) Petress relates that over the past five decades "instruction in the arts have alternately ascended and descended in their popularity, vitality, and support, especially in the K-12 grades. Music has taken some of the biggest and more frequent cuts among the arts due, in great part, t...