Williston graphic., 1919-03-13
Training Little Children
BY Mrs. Jean N. Barrett

work." Bad housekeeping, perhaps,
but good homemaking, for I have
since learned that this methods was
always resorted to. when the morn
ing atmosphere Of the home threat
ened to be gloomy or quarrelsome,
and the singing never failed to drive
away the clouds. OF course, this use
of music is most effective with
child who is either endowed by ma
ture with the ability to respond to
musical influence or has been train
ed in ear and heart to feel it's effects.
A child who has always heard good
music and has early learned to love
and produce it, has great advantage
over one to whom it comes as later
and more foreign achievement. Re-
sponsiveness to the atmosphere of
music is not, however, dependent up
on the ability to create it, although
of course, made stronger by it. A
little 4-year-old child who had no ma
tural ability for either singing or
playing, being deficient in both rhyth-
mic sense and sense of pitch, never
theless was so sensitive to musical
impressions that she described the
tunes which were played to her as
being pink and red and blue like the
sky, and one which has strong
chords with staccato melody above
them as the green tune with red
berries. These interpretations of
music in terms of color were later
explained by the development Of an
unusual degree Of talent with pencil
and brush.
Another memory Of my childhood
is of visit to dear auntie who,
on Sunday afternoons, took her little
visitor to the west pasture and amid
the splendor of the sinking red sun
[read from a volume Of sacred poems.
The cadence of hre sweet low voice
will always echo through my men,
ory.
1t. is truly a part of music's minis
try to speak through the charm Of a
we'll modulated pleasant-toned voice,
lending itself freely to the various
moods of the fine nature it serves. 1t
is truly one of the duties Of the
mother and the Kindergarten to be
a model for her children in this re-
spect as in many others, for children
are very sensitive to voice quality.
While the kindergartner's oppor-
tunity comes later than that Of the
mother, she has the same response
bility to see that the children under
her care are given the opportunity
for "full and all-sided development" J"
to use the words of Frobel, "to en-
able him to see man in the univer-
salty of his nature and particularly
to enable him to understand and ap-
preciate the products of true art" +"
Many children will come to her with
out having experienced in the home
any of the life of music which might
have been theirs, and to her will fall
the duty of arousing the first idea, of
awakening the first emotion for
sound.
Who that has ever witnessed the
delight of little kindergarten child
in this new way of expressing his
Joy in life can doubt that music
should be regarded as a benefcent in
fluence in life, and not as an accom-
plishment to be cultivated only by
those of more than ordinary endow-
ment? When the Kindergarten says,
"Who will sing our new song for
US alone?" how often it is the little
fellow who cannot yet carry tune
that eagerly responds especially if
mother is there to hear. If teacher
and mother are wise, there will be
no expression of surprise or dissent;
for the right trueness or untrueness
of the tune just now is nothing to the
inner urge which makes the child
want to express himself in this new
and delightful way.
| To sing the liltinng measure when
the heart is gay, to give thanks for
cherished blessings in the glad hymn
Of praise, to send upon wings or song
a prayer for strength to bear the bur-
den and grief too heavy to be borne
alone, this is what Gods great gift
of music should mean to US. Let us
help the little children to enter into
their heritage of song.
WHEN YOU WANT THAT PAR.
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