Gerald Ricke, Director of Bands
email: Rickeg@lake.k12.fl.us
address: 18725 Bates Avenue, Eustis, FL 32736
phone: 352-357-6220

Saturday, June 15, 2013

Instrumental Adoption Program



The Eustis Music Association is driven by a passion to promote music education. The Foundation's mission is supported and accomplished through raising money for music scholarships, donating musical instruments and products to the under-privileged, and donating the use of music instruments to the music education community. 

Lots of families have used musical instruments that their children have outgrown or simply no longer use, and they are just taking up space. Now you can give another child the joy of music and a tax deduction.

"From the minute a child is taught how to play an instrument, he's no longer poor. He becomes a child in progress, heading for a professional level, who'll later become a citizen" - Maestro Jose Abreu, founder of El Sistema music program.

Allowing for the advantage of re-testing, the results of the study revealed that there is significant improvement for underprivileged children in the the following areas:
  • Receptive and expressive Language
  • Letter ID
  • Puzzle assembly
  • Numeracy in the areas of verbal counting, and estimation magnitudes
  • Fluid and quantitative reasoning
  • Critical thinking
Research has proven this over and over again. Although the results could not conclusively say that music training by itself is responsible for the increase in these areas of cognitive thinking for underprivileged children, it does support the hypothesis that music can be highly effective as a means to an end, the end being improved cognitive function and increased IQ.

What the studies show is that the small group and one-on-one interactions with teachers provided increased opportunities for attention training and training in social interaction, both of which are listed as lacking in school aged children in surveys conducted amongst teachers by the Pew Research Group.

In an age where the forms of stimulation commonly craved by underprivileged children can be counterproductive to positive thought and interaction, music provides an outlet to stimulate healthy cognitive and expressive development. Music can also reinforce positive social interactions and provide much needed opportunities for attention span development.  It is becoming more evident that music and social development for all children (especially underprivileged children) go hand in hand.

Click here to fill out our instrument adoption form.

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