Most folks on ACEsConnection know that Dr. Bruce Perry’s in Washington May 4 to talk on healing trauma at the National Council.
What’s that got to do with this sculpture of children singing in the Cathedral of Florence in 1436 to kick off the Renaissance? Everything!
Dr. Perry says it’s brain science to regulate the brain stem with “patterned, repetitive, rhythmic regulation,” featuring yoga, meditation, deep breathing, and singing, principles so fundamental they go back to the dawn of man. [FN1]
Who can imagine life without singing? In every culture, long before writing, the only way to pass down an idea was to sing it. Aryans have sung Vedas since 5,000 BC or before. Hebrews sang Psalms as far back as 2,500 BC, long before they were written down ca. 1400 BC. [FN2 ]
Want to regulate kids? Teach them to sing! Gathering children to sing in choirs was the core of the Greek educational system since at least 700 BC, and there were choir schools for kids in Europe at least since the 900s AD. [FN3] Singing in choirs brings kids into organized personal connection with other living, regularly-breathing human beings. Being connected and in harmony with other humans is what best regulates human beings – today brain scientists call it “limbic resonance.” [FN4]
Singing gives kids a voice! Children have been known to sing gloriously even today. Watch 9-year old Amira Willighagen sing in Amsterdam last year.
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