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SCHOOL PROGRAMS

Learning Through Song

When our children were preschoolers and we wanted them to do certain chores, such as brushing teeth or taking baths, communicating to them through the vehicle of song often turned a potential conflict into fun. I've often reflected on why this should be so. It seems that song holds an inherent pleasure, one that I believe is universal and has its roots deep in our biology.

We are truly singing beings. Not only is song a universal part of the many different human cultures of our planet, I think we human beings are more like whales than we realize. Like whales and other vocalizing creatures, we use song to transmit knowledge needed for survival. We use it to soothe our young ones. Beyond that, we use it to teach values and morals and to transmit our history and culture.

Speech itself has some of the components of song; its rhythm and melody are what we attend to when we are first learning a language, whether as infants or as adults. From the very beginning of life, we absorb information through speech-as-song. Learning through song is thus one of our earliest learning styles. It is clearly one that continues to be powerful throughout life.

What we actually refer to as a song, however, is speech connected to music. Speech alone was not enough to turn my preschoolers' tasks into fun. Music adds emotional and spiritual elements to the intellectual messages in a song. Our deep-rooted emotional connection with song leads to a natural emotional connection to what we are singing about. When we feel emotionally connected to something, it is more likely to stay in our consciousness and we are more likely to respond to it in caring ways. If action is needed, we are more inclined to take action for the benefit of what we own emotionally. What we grow to own is what we are most likely to grow to love and protect.

When we sing for children, whether as performers, as teachers, or as parents or other adults in their lives, we have the opportunity to teach as well as to entertain. Drawing on singing as a primary learning style, we can choose songs that cultivate children's awareness of who we are as human beings and what the crucial issues are that we need to address. Using the power of song to create strong emotional connections, we can guide our children to love the world we live in and to become active participants in preserving it and in creating a better future.