In many communities Kindergarten has become the new first grade. Expectations have been raised increasingly pushing music and song off the stage and off the kindergarten agenda. Today's guest explains how recent research has confirmed that need to keep music in the kindergarten classroom.

Our guests in this segment connect the dots and make the case that music is about much more than typically thought. Discipline, creativity, teamwork, critical thinking and many of the attributes that are part of the national framework for developing 21st century skills.

Music education is considered fluff and superfluous in many education circles. But noted researcher Eric Jensen explains the connection between music and cognitive development and shows why music is essential to learning.