Before any attempt can be made to show in what ways the school music program may influence the character of children, the problem must be presented and terms defined. Since this study is not intended to be one of extended psychological research, the reader should bear in mind that the problem is that of the music teacher and not of the psychologist or expert counselor. Therefore our terms will be defined in a very liberal manner, more as they are understood by the average reader. By character training is meant the conscious or unconscious effort on the part of parents, teachers, or others closely associated with the child, to bring about improvement in the child's habits of feeling, thinking, and acting. Good character is "not only knowing what is right but wanted to do it, and eventually doing it".1 The school music program as herein referred to is an all inclusive term covering all grades from kindergarten through college, all active participation courses as well as those in appreciation, all activities both curricular and extra-curricular, in which music plays an active part, such as dancing, drama, etc. However, it may be stated that this work was written with the secondary school groups, junior and senior high schools, most prominently in mind. It has been claimed that music has great powers over human emotions. If this is true, music is indeed a dangerous thing unless used with discretion. That character is influenced to a great extent by the emotions is denied by but few. Therefore, if we can establish a definite relationship between music and human emotions, and character and the emotions, the relationship between music and character training becomes obvious. Because of this firm belief in the importance of the school music program in aiding the development of strong character, an appeal is here made to the serious minded educator to consider not only what music should be taught, but also under what conditions. Education should fit people for living, day by day, a full and satisfying life. In order to live such a life it is necessary that plenty of work which includes a certain element of play be included. How our people shall spend their play hours in the future is decided by what their education is today. Music is a prominent factor in reaching out and enriching home and civic life. In this way music has great potentialities in the program of character training.

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This study is an evaluation of individual music textbooks from eight series for grades four, five, and six, by a definite criterion basis. It seems very worthwhile to have an evaluation of such books: (a) to aid in the wise selection of music books, and (b) to become familiar with the contributions of each series.

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There is evidence that the strategies used by fluent readers of written language and by fluent "sight-readers" of musical notation are much the same. Both require a background in the modality represented by the written symbols. Both require context for construction of meaning through sampling and prediction. In this study, a method of elementary music-reading instruction was developed in which musical notation is introduced in the context of musical patterns familiar to the students through earlier musical experiences. The focus is on melodic contour and rhythmic units, initially with no emphasis on exact pitch. An experimental study was conducted to compare the effectiveness of this method with a more traditional one in which the elements of notation are first introduced in isolation. Subjects for the study were two beginning string classes (fourth- through sixth-grade students) in geographically contiguous schools in a large school district in a southwestern city. There were two 30-minute classes per week. During the first two months, both groups were given identical pre-reading experiences, including rote playing, by the regular music teachers. Instruction in music reading, begun in the third month, consisted of eleven lessons administered to each group by the investigator. The testing instrument, designed by the investigator and used as pretest and posttest, consisted of initial measures of five children's songs, four of which were familiar to the children through rote experiences. While all of the subjects received zero on the pretest, posttest scores for both groups indicated growth in music reading. A t-test on the data permitted rejection of the null hypothesis and acceptance of the alternate hypothesis that the investigator-designed method was more effective than the traditional one in both the music-reading task and the sight-reading task.

Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries / Department: Music.