What is school music for? Children with developmental problems

Recent discussion questions on the Teaching Music forum have included the question "what is school music for?".When we discuss "what is school music for?" on our usual lines, eg instance, "relaxation, creativity and fun [versus] a serious, academic subject", are we leaving out the most important thing....

Recent discussion questions on the Teaching Music forum have included the question "what is school music for?".When we discuss "what is school music for?" on our usual lines, eg instance, "relaxation, creativity and fun [versus] a serious, academic subject", are we leaving out the most important thing - that brain experts tell us music can help reregulate the deregulated brain in a way that other subjects cannot, and, as they also tell us, it can promote the development of the healthy brain? See for instance, page 5 of today's Observer where a leading neuroscientist makes casual reference to drumming as an alternative to medication.

You see introductions to official reports that make general mention of music as "reaching the parts other things don't reach". But that often doesn't connect much to the rest of the report content.

Now, I wince as much as the next smart person at infomercial- type statements about how "music" does X,Y,Z for people, since viewing "music" as one thing is a near guarantee that "it" won't have the wand-waving effect hoped for, and since hooking a troubled child up with the local piano teachers.... Well, it's not going to work often is it? And I'm sure we would all actively resist the temptation to talk about the brain as if we had studied it at a high level.

But, spending one to one time with a sensitive flexible musician within the school environment seems to be good - very good - for some challenged children. And lots of children who struggle to join in in non-musical ways will join in group music, if you get the culture right. Neither the musician nor the class teacher need to be able to articulate how or why, but the head or classroom teacher, not the outside expert, is best placed to judge whether something is working.

How could teachers reclaim their rightful authority in this area?

Follow the discussion here http://www.teachingmusic.org.uk/mod/forum/forum.aspx?lngForumID=1019