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Students entering History 32 this term were asked, among the usual questions connected with registration, "Will you sing on the class glee club?" Volunteers from the class, it appears, are to be trained to sing songs connected historically with the subject matter of the course. Music hath, among its charms, a power to fix interesting data in the student mind. It is hoped that at the final examination the A men, upon hearing the first two measures of 'Yankee Doodle", will be able to distinguish themselves by promptly answering "American Revolution!"--with dates if relivant. Passing through the Yard in the near future we may expect to hear youthful voices from German A roaring the dubious strains of "Ich weiss necht was solles bedenten". "The Freshmen just love to learn it this way", explains the instructor as he beats time and leads the refrain. Humorous as this at first appears, the principle underlying it is a sound one. The History 32 glee club is, of course, only an experiment, but there is every reason to expect that vocal selections will really be able to brighten and "vitalize" the study of history. Psychologists have long been aware that the mind retains most vividly impressions received under emotional stress, while to educators the fact will, we trust, be demonstrated that music as an aid to learning should not be confined solely to kindergartens. Furthermore, the success of the History 32 experiment will undoubtedly lead to innovations in other college courses which may eventually go far to solve our present problem of humanizing the large courses.
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