April 29, 2025
At Mounds Park Academy, music is much more than an extracurricular activity. It plays a vital part in a child’s cognitive and emotional development by engaging the brain in ways few other disciplines can. It sharpens memory, strengthens attention, and boosts language skills. But beyond academic growth, music also nurtures empathy, creativity, and social and emotional intelligence through composing, performing, or simply listening. This is why music plays an essential role in Mounds Park Academy’s whole child, progressive, college-preparatory curriculum, PreK through grade 12.
In a time when standardized testing is heavily emphasized and there are rising concerns about math and science scores within our nation, parents might question MPA’s emphasis on the arts. From the school’s founding, our curriculum has reflected an intentional balance between academics and the arts. Through new and emerging research, we now know they were correct.
Cognitive Benefits of Music
The Frontiers in Neuroscience article, “How Musical Training Affects Cognitive Development,” states that children exposed to musical training have better verbal memory, language pronunciation and accuracy, reading ability, and executive functions, because of how the brain processes sound. Nina Kraus, author of “Of Sound Mind,” said “People think of the hearing brain as being a silo within the brain. In fact, our hearing engages our cognitive, sensory, motor, and reward systems.” Music learning is so powerful because it engages every one of the above systems into a single activity. Kraus asks us to consider playing the violin. “To play the violin, a student coordinates their motor, cognitive, and sensory system to be able to put their fingers on the correct strings and move the bow at the right time; to read musical notes on a sheet of music and know what sounds they represent; and to hear if the pitches and rhythms are correct and coordinating with other players at the same time,” she goes on to say that this elicits a certain feeling from the student playing the music, which triggers the reward system within the brain. Engaging these different systems makes learning how to play music one of the richest and deepest brain activities humans can perform. Simply put, “Teachers resoundingly tell me that children who participate in creating music do better in school,” Kraus states. Read More
This message is from MPA’s Office of Admission from the April 22 issue of Inside MPA. 
This message is from MPA’s Office of Admission from the April 16 issue of Inside MPA. 
This message is from MPA’s Office of Admission from the April 4 issue of Inside MPA. 
This message is from MPA’s Office of Admission from the March 22 issue of Inside MPA. 
The arrival of spring brings a new season to all private schools all around the country: admission season! Here at MPA, decisions are released on March 28 and the enrollment deadline quickly follows on April 11. This means families are currently facing a decision—and sometimes, that decision can be difficult. So with the help of our community, we collected a list of ten things families should consider when deciding on a private school.
This message is from MPA’s Office of Admission from the March 9 issue of Inside MPA. 
This message is from MPA’s Office of Admission from the February 26 issue of Inside MPA. 
When it comes to making a school choice, there are so many different types of environments to explore. Each educational philosophy offers a unique approach to learning, with its own set of strengths, challenges, and benefits for each individual child.
This message is from MPA’s Office of Admission from the February 2 issue of Inside MPA.