What If We Measured Potential Through Music — Not Tests?

“I’m not saying I’m gonna change the world, but I guarantee that I will spark the brain that will change the world.” — Tupac Shakur

Johnny Cash and Tupac Shakur came from vastly different worlds — one a country singer from rural Arkansas, the other a rapper from the urban streets of California — but they sang about the same things. Both were great storytellers who gave voice to the forgotten: the poor, the imprisoned, the addicted, and the brokenhearted. They didn’t just entertain us, they confessed, they protested, and they revealed. They confronted pain, injustice, and survival. One strummed a guitar, the other rapped over beats, but both built bridges through music that still echo today — because the human story, no matter how it's told, always finds its way to those who need to hear it.

Music doesn’t just move us — it reveals us. It connects generations, offers a window into the soul, and gives powerful clues about how a person thinks, feels, and learns. In the right hands, music can be more than expression — it can be a map to a young person’s unique intelligence.

Why This Story Matters

For decades, we’ve used outdated, rigid IQ and standardized tests to define a child’s worth. These tests — cold, narrow, and rooted in limited constructs — claim to measure intelligence. In reality, they often serve to label, diminish, and pathologize kids whose gifts don’t fit the mold.

They tell parents, “Something is wrong,” not because there is, but because the test doesn’t know how else to understand their child.

What if we used music — that living, breathing extension of identity — to understand how young people think, feel, and learn?

Music as a Window Into the Mind

Music reveals how a brain works: A teen who loves hip-hop may have verbal dexterity, pattern recognition, and a strong narrative sense. One drawn to classical may process emotion deeply and excel in abstraction. Electronic music fans might show rhythm intelligence, spatial awareness, and sensory processing strengths.

These aren’t just preferences — they’re clues to how a brain absorbs, responds to, and reshapes information. Music reflects multiple intelligences — linguistic, emotional, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal — in ways a standardized test can’t begin to touch.

The Harm of Archaic Testing

Traditional IQ tests: Measure only narrow cognitive domains. They fail to account for cultural, emotional, or creative intelligence. They rarely reflect how a child actually learns or solves problems in the real world. They can lead to early mislabeling that sticks for life. Too often, a child is sat down, timed, and evaluated by someone they barely know — using a tool they weren’t allowed to prepare for — then judged based on results that test nothing but conformity. These labels can follow a child for life, breeding self-doubt and shame instead of curiosity and confidence.

Music-Based Learning Profiles: A Better Way

Imagine asking a teen about their favorite artists and using that as a springboard to map how they process the world. A music-based learning profile would:

• Tap into real interests and emotional truth

• Reveal cognitive strengths and learning styles

• Build trust instead of fear

• Offer actionable insight for teachers, parents, and youth workers

It wouldn’t be a “test.” It would be a conversation — one that leads to self-awareness and shared understanding.

Instead of asking, “How smart is this child?” we need to ask, “In what ways is this child wired to learn?” Music is more than sound. It’s identity, language, emotion, and rhythm — all the things traditional tests ignore. When we measure kids through music, we don’t just gather data. We meet them where they are. We hear their story before we try to rewrite it.

-Barry Smith