Generally, it is very difficult for a European to understand Indian music, even after years of living in the country but young Indian children follow enraptured quite long concerts, shaking their heads in the proper tempo and moving their hands to mark the seemingly peculiar pattern of the music. The young child's mind is different from that of older people. To learn a foreign language, for instance, the latter have to apply themselves deliberately and expend purposeful effort. The child does not study books, does not follow lessons, exerts no effort. The child does not learn language, he absorbs it as a dry sponge absorbs water.
Language seems to grow in the child.
Given the chance, music can also grow in the child as he himself grows. Dr. Montessori and the child. Montessori was one of the truest interpreters of the child's nature and of the child's needs. Her books, The Discovery of the Child, The Secret of Childhood and The Absorbent Mind, by unfolding the real purport of psychic organisation, reveal the greatness of the child's contribution to human society. An adult finds it very difficult to become adapted to a new environment and to a totally different pattern of culture.