Teaching Critical Thinking via Metal?

In this issue, we devote a sizable chunk of real estate to examining the current fretted market for instruments and gear geared toward the hard rock and heavy metal enthusiast – what purchasing trends are emerging in 2016, how best to sell to this type of consumer, what products are really moving off the shelves, et cetera.

While both my own commentary and that of some of the industry experts we spoke with argues that metalheads shouldn’t all be categorized as thuggish brutes (as Nick Bowcott of Marshall points out, these players come from “all walks-of-life and all ages – from 11 years old to 65 years young; and from ditch-diggers to doctors, dentists and CEOs”) none of us made the leap that Rodney Schmaltz, assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at McMaster University in Edmonton, Alberta has.

In a recently published article in the journal, Frontiers in Psychology, Schmaltz argues that heavy metal music can promote scientific thinking.

An example he puts forth is the famous 1990 Judas Priest trial during which the band was ultimately found to be not liable for the deaths of two young men who cited Priest’s music as the reason they had killed themselves. “The case can lead to an interesting class discussion on how extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence,” he writes. “The claim that a backwards, subliminal message can lead someone to take their own life is an extraordinary claim. Students can be challenged to describe how they would experimentally test the impact of subliminal messages on behavior, followed by a class discussion of how the actual research was conducted in the field. This is an engaging example to help students better understand variable manipulation, demand characteristics, and issues of generalizability. At least in the case of subliminal messages, students will learn that music does not lead to problematic or harmful behavior.”

Schmaltz additionally points out that research has demonstrated that “people who were fans of heavy metal music in adolescence fared better in many aspects of their adult lives than people who were not fans.”

How about that?

Potentially a solid source of income for your MI retail operation and a useful teaching tool!

In this month’s installment of ‘The Good Fight,’ Mary Luehrsen urges taking advantage of the passage of the Every Students Succeeds Act, noting that “Now is the time to plant the seeds of expansion and development for music education programs in all school districts across the country.”

Maybe part of that expansion and development should include incorporating some hard rock in the curriculum. I’m not even sort of kidding – I know I and my friends would’ve been a lot more excited about attending music class if metal had been in the lesson-plan. Just something to consider.

Rock on.