For smart old India, let kids play (music)

For all the semi-excitement around 'reskilling', 'knowledge economy' and 'demographic dividend', one thing the wise ones royally ignore is music education for India's young. You may wonder what we're tooting on about. But more than physical education and sports, a large number of schools and parents think knowing how to play an instrument isn't worthwhile. At best, music learning is relegated to school functions and singing, mostly patriotic songs, whose aim is, ironically, not musical excellence but 'imbibing a feeling'. Well, the wise ones should do well to heed a new study conducted by the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, which shows a positive correlation between learning a musical instrument in youth and improved thinking skills in old age.

True, that the brains of retired people ticking better if they played the piano or guitar as a youngster doesn't necessarily mean a working population can be smarter if people learnt the tabla or shehnai as kids. But the study tracked 366 people, all now 86 years old, from when they were 11 years old in 1947, and found cognitive abilities among those who played an instrument in their youth to be slightly better than those who didn't. Which means it could well help to make playing a musical instrument, instead of just playing the fool, part of essential school learning.