LEADERSHIP BULLETIN
from the Early Childhood Connection

Music Education: An Antidote to Violence
Vol. 7, No. 4
Summer 2002 Click here for a PDF printable version.

In the 1997 publication Children in a Violent Society, Bruce Perry, M.D., Ph.D., presents a chapter about neurodevelopmental factors related to violence. He maintains that violence resides within the brain--it is not the finger pulling the trigger that kills, it is the brain. Therefore, in order to understand violence, we must understand the brain.

In explaining brain development, ECC Research Review Editor Joyce Jordan-DeCarbo writes: "Characteristically, the lower parts of the brain develop first, followed by the more complex limbic and cortical areas. As the more complex parts of the brain develop, they begin to modulate and 'control' the more primitive and 'reactive' lower areas of the brain." Moreover, the more complex areas play a major role in inhibiting and regulating the lower parts of the central nervous system associated with control of violent behavior. Perry emphasizes that without higher-brain functions to curb primitive impulses, children cannot change or alter their defense behaviors and are at-risk for becoming more reactive and violent individuals.

The brain grows, organizes, and functions in response to experiences--and those experiences that contribute to the growth, complexity, and expansion of synaptic connections will result in normal development of the cortex. By contrast, children deprived of higher-end experiences will exhibit some emotional retardation as well as persistent immature behaviors associated with the lower or more privative areas of the brain. Experience plays a central role in who will and who will not turn violent. Jordan-DeCarbo explains, "The most dangerous among us have gotten that way from a malignant combination of experiences--lack of critical early-life nurturing, chaotic and cognitively impoverished environments, pervasive physical threat, persisting fear, as well as observation of the strongest, most violent in the home getting what you want." Perry believes that enriching, nurturing, and loving experiences are critical in preventing problems related to violence--as long as these experiences occur early in a child's life when the plasticity of the brain is greatest. Equipped with this understanding of brain development, we must offer children experience that support higher-brain function.

Happily, music education ranks among those experience that develop the more complex areas of the brain--areas that govern language, abstract thinking, concentration, empathy, compassion, and regulation of behavior. Thus, music educators are already providing the kinds of sensorimotor experiences that help control and prevent violence, but this message is not always being heard. Jordan-DeCarbo explains:

We must help parents understand the role of the arts in replacing images of violence with images of beauty. Through songs, stories, dances, and rhythms, we introduce children to the diversity of peoples and places as well as to the wonders of nature. These musical experiences help children build strong emotional connections and affect. The rhythm and movement games that are so central to our classes help develop children's capacity for modifying strong impulse drives. . . Creative activities that encourage musical problem-solving, as well as music reading/writing activities that support symbolic learning, help advance literacy skills and higher-order thinking patterns. And, the laughter and fun associated with music making help strengthen the limbic system of the brain--thus contributing to the systematic and sequential maturation of higher-order thinking skills.

Through music and movement education, we are offering children a means by which they can mediate and modulate the violence found in their world. As an ideal vehicle for delivering those experiences that develop complex brain function, early childhood music education provides a veritable antidote to the more reactive and lower-brain functions that contribute so profoundly to violence in our society. This being said, let us all further dedicate ourselves to bringing musical experiences to more children.

Early Childhood Connections
Foundation for Music-Based Learning
PO Box 4247
Greensboro, NC 27404-4247

ECC LEADERSHIP BULLETIN is published by the Foundation for Music-Based Learning.  Readers are encouraged to photocopy and distribute this bulletin for educational purposes.

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