Musical Stress Relief

Do our youth face stress? If you ask the group of sixth graders at Carroll Middle School on Tuesday you would find out that they do. The youth told us that things like tests, EOG's, and social issues can be stressful for them. They shared with us great ways for stress relief such as bubble baths, playing sports, and sleeping. But an hour later they had a new twist on an old tune to help as well.

When asked who liked to listen to music all of them raised their hands. Their music tastes ran the gambit from classical to R&B. Each sharing their individual favorites which help them to identify who they are. The youth also shared that they like to listen to music when they study and before going to bed at night, among the many other times in the day that they tune in.

Working with an activity from the "Health Rocks" curriculum we talked about using music as stress relief. The youth numbered a sheet of paper from one to ten. They laid their heads down on their desks and listened to a minute of music. The ten songs ranged from classical to rap, country to rock with a few interesting twists thrown in between. After listening to each selection the youth assigned a number to the song from one to five. One was for songs that made them hyper, they could not concentrate, it changed their mood, drove them to distraction. Five was for songs that were peaceful and calm. With the numbers in between being assigned to songs that ranged among the octaves.

When they got done they realized many of them felt the same way about similar kinds of music. All of them heard at least one kind of music they had never heard before. All of them concluded that they would think about what they are going to listen to based on what they are doing and not listen to songs that might stress them even more when they are in a stressful situation. One other big learning point for them this day...they said they would try listening to music or some other stress reliever so they would not need to turn to risky behaviors such as smoking, drinking or drugs.

Did they have a favorite song? Sure, they each did and now might even be a little more tolerant of music from other generations as well. Stay tuned while we try this fun stress less experiment at W. H. Knuckles tomorrow as part of their summer program with third and fourth graders.