A healthy dose of music education for children is, well ... healthy.

A 2023 University of Southern California Thornton School of Music study found that, beyond the well-documented promotion of neural connection growth exposure to music education fosters in children, it also leads to better mental health, increased emotional stability and improved cognitive function.

That’s why efforts as a community to ensure exposure to music education is so important. Today’s children will soon be some of those running the show in years to come and we should all want intelligent, emotionally stable leaders and neighbors.

In today’s edition of the Butler Eagle, we highlighted a cross-community act of giving aimed to further the goal of promoting music education.

Principal Vanessa Boyd told individuals with Butler County-based nonprofit Blackwood Arts at a luncheon that Broad Street Elementary School needed a sound system because only those in the front of the school’s auditorium could hear performances. In response the organization raised money, about $10,000, and gathered donated items, including a piano, to provide to the school. The equipment was brought into the school last month, just in time for the new school year.

For Blackwood Arts, the act of giving was just a part of its core mission of introducing music to children. We in Butler County are lucky to have a group actively working toward such an admirable goal.

— JP