Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 79, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 April 1917 — MUSIC’S INFLUENCE ON CHILD LIFE [ARTICLE]

MUSIC’S INFLUENCE ON CHILD LIFE

, Superintendent of Chicago Public Schools.

By JOHN D. SHOOP,

The value of music in the economy of human life is neither widely nor fully appreciated. We reflect to a greater or less extent in our own personalities the rhythm and harmony which pervades all natur?. This rhythm relieves the monotony of existence and is the agency through which we are able to bring ourselves into harmony with the forces of nature and the thoughts and emotions of cur fellow hunhmkind. Music constitutes one of the most pleasing and highest forms of expression through which thought and emotions find utterance. It is the avocation which provides festfulness from the strain of daily pursuits and comes as a solace to the weary brain and as a stimulus to the depressed spirits.. Music forms the basis, also, of the most effective correlation and concentration of the energies and the purposes of the Social body. The church < has long recognized its power and utilizes it in blending the emotions of its worshipers into a harmonious and unified whole. There is a psychological value in the song which precedes the discourse. It corresponds to the preparation of the seedbed by the firmer to encourage germination and a growth of that which he sows. There is a marked analogy between the rhythm of nature and that of which the mind of man sooner or later becomes conscious. It should be the aim of education to encoiirage the discovery of this relationship through the adaptation and application of music in 'the training of the child at every stage of his existence. • ' The jingle of the Mother Goose melody, that is always so welcome, and the soothing lullaby that brings to the child peaceful slumber indicate clearly that music is. indigenous to the nature of childhood. If we are careful not to conventionalize too earlyjin the life of the child that which is to supply this yearning and longing for the forms of rhythmic expression, music will naturally and unconsciously weass itaelf into the fabric of character and personality. . " ,