4th and Final Music Installment: Music and Personalities - Paul Harvey, Lab Mice and Wizards of Waverly Place

PAUL HARVEY NEWS, ABC 1991 . . . on the Rest of the Music Story

"Music is everywhere, in bird song and in babbling brooks and in laughter, even in the stars.  Music is the universal language that transcends time and space.  Music is one of the SEVEN FORMS OF HUMAN INTELLIGENCE.  Yet education - as is - is almost totally geared to nurturing linguistic and logical - mathematical abilities alone, leaving the other five forms neglected.  At elementary school level in the U.S., more than half have no full-time music teacher.  And thus our schools tend to refine intellects but neglect to discipline emotions.  And undisciplined emotions keep getting us into trouble.  Somebody who may be smart as all get out, if emotionally colorblind, is an unguided missile to self-destruct.  Without the arts - including music -  we risk graduating young people who are 'right brain damaged.'  For anyone to grow up complete, music is imperative."

Effects of different kinds of music on mice

Suffolk, VA, high school student David Merrell finished first in regional and state science fairs by demonstrating the effects of music on lab mice.  Merrell played classical music to one group and heavy metal to another for 10 hours a day.  After three weeks, the mice exposed to classical music made it through the maze in a minute and a half.  The rock music group took 30 minutes.  Said Merrell:  "I had to cut my project short because all the hard-rock mice killed each other.  None of the classical mice did that."

I have also heard of the same effects on plants.  When classical music was played to one group of plants, they flourished.  When hard rock was played to another, they shriveled up and died.

I'll let you draw your own conclusions from those studies and take appropriate actions to make sure that your child flourishes.

Wizards of Waverly Place

Last January an episode of Wizards of Waverly Place convinced me I was making the right choice in talking about the importance of music in connection with learning ability and personality characteristics.  I recorded it and just went to review it, and it's gone.  But the jest of it is that Justin convinces the Principal that they should play classical music during lunch.  He gets permission and things are off to a promising start.  Then, the rebel girl and Justin's sister, Alex, bring in a live hard rock band.  Well, at first it seemed great to everyone but Justin.  Then after just a few days, all the students were rebellious and out of control!  

So, both the absence of music, and the presence of the wrong kind of music can have ill effects on children.  From my experience though, classical music is best introduced when children are very young, and continued throughout their life living with you.  If you wait until your children are teenagers, you will have a harder time getting them to embrace it.  As I've said before, if you don't have your children learn how to play classical music on an instrument, at the very least, make sure that they listen to it often, just as background music even.  When you find a piece you particularly like, you could share it with us.

Doreese