This is a generally a discussion of public schools. Private schools are a much different situation because they have more resources, generally a more motivated student population as a whole, and can set their own standards of education.
Gorgon, please send me some links to the studies you are using. I am always interested in this sort of thing, especially now that I have to young children. You say that music affects different areas of the brain, yet it is shown that those who learn music and listen to complex musical compositions actually show greater intelligence. It is also well known that you remember things much more easily if you sing them, make them rhyme, or create Mnemonics (which I dare say is artistic, in a way). We still know so little about the brain, it could be possible that the pathways enhanced by music and art help the brain better access the memory needed to more effectively use the logical centers of the brain.
I don't have any specific sources seeing how much, if not all, of what I've been saying is just a general overview of some common knowledge within the field of psychology. I'll do a little research and pull up some specific studies or papers when I have a little more time in order to get to you who found what and when. It's something I should know, anyway.
I would definitely recommend discover magazine, though (discovermagazine.com) if you're interested in anything the brain. They do a good job putting out articles covering some big-name psychologists (I recently read a great one covering Antonio Damasio's research) in pretty simple terms. There was one specifically, that once I find it I will tell you what month/year it was, about the healing capacity of music for stroke victims. It appears that music is so removed from language in the brain's function that stroke victims who suffered a left-side stroke to their Brocas area (which handles speech and is only found on the left side of the brain in the posterior region) and had difficulty speaking or could not speak could actually, to their delight, sing without effort. Because the brain registers music so differently, musical words are actually created and sent out through the opposite side of the brain in many cases.
Listening to music, learning music theory, and playing musical instruments does raise intelligence, creativity, among many, many other benefits. I could talk for days about the importance of music to brain development, personal development, cultural development, etc. But it still doesn't impact the brain in the same regions or in the same ways that science does and doesn't create the same outcomes.
Everything from Here Down is Mildly Unrelated, except partially related to what darx said. You may not be interested if you don't want to get off topic--I'm writing this only after I've accidentally drilled out a few paragraphs...The Method of Loci, in which you imagine items which need to be remembered in a familiar location, then walk through the location in your mind to remember them, is widely known to be one of the oldest and most effective memory devices. Yet, we wouldn't say studying architecture or geography would be an immense help to every area of study. One of the primary reasons memory devices like this work is they ingrain a piece of information to a chunk of knowledge already held, such as a song or place, and thus create a "cognitive path" to this information. It is the same principle that allows you to smell your ex-boyfriend's cologne and have memories of him--it is not inherently because of the music itself that this works, but because of the created relationship between two items which become "filed" together.
As far as short handing or using Mnemonic devices--these again play on a principle separate from the actual use of creativity to memorize. The idea is instead of remembering nine things, such as the planets (there was nine when I was younger--I know that since there have been ten and now there's eight), I can remember one phrase, such as "my very educated mother just serves us nasty pickles." Our brains can hold in our working, 0r active, memories between five and nine items, depending on the person (on average seven, hence the phrase in psychology "Seven Plus or Minus Two"--see Miller's research). The size of items is irrelevant as long as I understand them, which means I can think of Freudian dream analysis and the 1998 Pistons in whole if I understand both well. The trick here is I've taken nine things I don't know and linked them to one item, thus allowing me to put the entire chunk of information into my long term memory at the same time, and creating a link between those separately filed planets and this phrase. Later, when I think of the phrase, my brain will automatically be able to link to the planets, which will all count as one piece of information in my working memory. It really has very little to do with the creativity of the process and has everything to do with the capacity of the brain--in this manner, someone else can create a device which I can use without being creative at all (such as Oh, Be a Fine Girl, Kiss Me ordering the classes of stars--I didn't come up with it, but I'll remember it forever).
Our knowledge of the brain is truly mid evil when compared to our knowledge of, say, our digestive system. That being said, we have a much keener idea of how the brain works than a lot of people seem to think. More on this, if you want it, later. I've written a lot out of context with the general area of discussion, I just realized.
I'm way off topic. Sorry.