I’ll never forget this moment. It was about two weeks into my 20th-century music history class—a key course then in Southern Methodist University’s music-history curriculum. I was on a professorial “roll,” forecasting for my sophomores a few of the drastic changes that would occur in post-World-War II music.

I told them about the “prepared piano” music of John Cage, who wove nuts, bolts, and rubber wedges into the piano strings. And a bit about the evolution of electronic music. And then I brought up “spatial music”—a loose term describing music where performers are positioned in unconventional locations to achieve a new sonic affect. I was about to link the idea back to Renaissance music written for the opposing balconies at St. Mark’s in Venice.

But I didn’t get that far. A hand shot up. Apparently I’d said “spatial” one too many times. Frowning in frustration, a young woman from South Carolina said: “Dr. Reynolds, what’s so “spatial” about that music?

Her Southern ear had turned my term” spatial” into a beautifully drawled version of “special.” Fortunately she had a sense of humor, because the class roared with good-natured laughter.

Yet her confusion points out something that affects each of us in education.

A student’s grasp of terminology carries the day, or it doesn’t! And serious education in any field requires the mastery of terminology.

Mature education is characterized by the ability to acquire and use terminology, no matter what the discipline. The more our children cultivate ease in acquiring terminology, the more facile they will be in their ability to learn across the disciplines.

That’s why the Fine Arts are so helpful in education. Whether it’s painting, poetry, sculpture, dance, theater, architecture, or music, the discipline requires terminology. The names of brush strokes in painting, arm positions in dance, patterns in fashion, or theory terms in music, the list is long and demanding.

And concretely useful. Because so much of the terminology in the arts is rooted in Greek and Latin, it’s ripe for etymological dissection. Plus, it’s stuffed with historical allusions. Best of all, it crosses over into many disciplines.

Stretch your mind with study of the fine arts. You might have to stumble over a term or to, but with time, patience, and persistence, our children (and we too) can become virtuosi in their study of Fine Arts.