More than 45% of people listen to at least 10 hours of music every week, according to a recent study by Lab42. Furthermore, a Gallup poll indicates in 2003 that 54% of American households have at least one musical instrument player. It is obvious that music is an important part of people's lives, but could listening and learning music serve other purposes than providing pleasure as an extracurricular pastime? Many wonder if music is a valuable part of education. Currently, less than 50% of the nation's 8th grade students receive arts instruction in school, and students are not achieving high levels in music and arts-related activities, as reported by the National Assessment educational progress. Unfortunately, many people don't realize this fact or are aware of it, but it just doesn't bother them. For some, music training should simply be an optional activity, and schools should not waste money integrating it into the curriculum. On the other hand, proponents of music education point to the positive results of music training as evidence that it should be included in school curricula. One of these outcomes is an improvement in cognitive abilities – the brain skills that humans need to complete any task, from the simplest to the most complex. Because listening to and learning music enhances cognitive abilities, music education is a necessary component of everyone's educational program, since cognitive reasoning is the foundation of successful critical thinking. One type of cognitive skill is spatiotemporal reasoning, the ability to visualize a pattern space and understand how pieces fit into that space. In 1993, psychology professor at the University of California, Irvine, Dr. Frances Rauscher and colleagues demonstrated...... middle of article...... Center, 2011. Web. December 5, 2013.Neisser, Ulric. “Increase in Intelligence Test Scores.” Editorial. American scientist September-October. 1997: no. page. American scientist. American scientist. Internet. March 29, 2014.Ostman, Sarah. “Social Sound Bytes: Listening and Sharing Music.” » Market Research Blog Infographics Personalized Search News Lab42. Lab42, August 7, 2012. Web. February 03, 2014. Rauscher FH, Shaw GL, Ky KN. Musical and spatial performance. Nature1993;365:611.Rauscher, FH, Shaw, GL, Levine, LJ, Wright, EL, Dennis, WR and Newcomb, RL Musical training results in long-term improvement in preschool children's spatiotemporal reasoning. Neurological Research, 1997, vol. 19, p. 2-8.Schellenberg, EG (2005) Current Directions in Psychological Science, Vol. 14, no. 6, 317-320. Schellenberg, E.G. (2004). Music lessons improve IQ. Psychological sciences, 15, 511–514.