The case for teaching every kid to play a musical instrument–for free

I played music as a kid and continue to do so, love it, both my kids are doing music. I'm for it.

One thing I have noticed, as a parent, is that there are a lot of things you should be doing because they are 1) good, and 2) have good side effects. Music, dance, sports, team sports, individual sports that build executive function, martial arts that emphasize forms, art, creative writing, poetry, learning a second language, volunteer work.

Oh, and also free unstructured time. Make sure you schedule that in with everything above.

I'm pretty sure that you can actually pick one, maybe two of the above, and you'll be good.

So, yes to music, but if a kid isn't that into clarinet (which is great) and prefers to dance, sculpture, kata... well, I strongly suspect things will be ok.