WONDERFUL WANDA PETERSEN

WONDERFUL WANDA PETERSEN
I had the good fortune of having a rare and remarkable teacher in the 5th grade. Everyone should be so lucky to have such a teacher. Her name was Wanda Holland Petersen. She was extraordinarily insightful and loving. From today’s enlightened perspective it is all the more astonishing to me that she understood principles of brain function that could only have come in the form of inspiration, because it predates any of the scientific studies and revelations that we presently count as sound fact. The fifth grade is a challenging time of life because of the Standard Achievement Tests (SAT). It is the first time students are truly aware of being judged not only against their colleagues in the classroom, but every student of the same age in the nation. Timed tests become the standard and the principle of stress is learned to a very high degree. For some reason, the River Heights 5th grade, under Mrs. Petersen’s tutelage surpassed the other schools in Cache Valley, Utah to such an extent that the Superintendent’s office began to worry that there was some foul play involved. A “spy” was sent to observe the administration of the test and insure that fair play was observed. I remember the day well. Before I explain what happened I need to explain a common practice that took place regularly in Mrs. Petersen’s class. Whenever the stress level seemed to raise in the class (usually during math) she would begin to sing: “There’s a long, long trail a winding into the land of my dreams” or some other song. We learned to just join in, and in a matter of a few days without passing out the words or music we would add yet another song to our repertory. The “music time” would end with the same kind of nonchalance as it began, and we would be back to our regular work. Another song we learned was “Keep the homefires burning, though your hearts are yearning”. One eventful day Wanda said, let’s sing those two songs together. We thought she was crazy. We were certain that it would create a musical train wreck. It did not. In fact it created a most interesting phenomena called counterpoint, a principle used especially during the Baroque period of music (1685-1750). It is a principle in which two independent and different musical ideas come together to merge on occasions with consonance (harmony) with some moments of dissonance (non harmony). It is delightful to the participants and generates a heightened intellectual process. We always loved doing it. To get back to the SAT experience, I remember getting to the math portion after lunch. A few minutes into the test the atmosphere in the room began to chill. Nervousness, fear, and stress began to increase, and at an unsolicited moment Mrs. Petersen began to sing There’s a long, long trail a winding. We joined in, setting down our number 2 lead pencils. The “spy” looked astonished, and pointed to the clock which had been supplied by the county to time the test. Mrs. Petersen gave her a look of security and let the clock continue to run. At a certain repetition she indicated to half of the room to create the counterpoint by singing Keep the home fires burning. The exercise lasted about 2 minutes, “wasting” 2 important minutes in the test, and yet everyone finished, and again we lead the county in the test scores. WHY? Because stress was relieved and organization was enhanced in our brains. Are you using this wonderful principle to augment your learning and testing skills?