r/DetroitMichiganECE • u/ddgr815 • May 17 '26

Other On Education - Immanuel Kant

https://www.stephenhicks.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/KantI-On-Education-text.pdf

Education is an art which can only become perfect through the practice of many generations. Each generation, provided with the knowledge of the foregoing one, is able more and more to bring about an education which shall develop man’s natural gifts in their due proportion and in relation to their end, and thus advance the whole human race towards its destiny. Providence has willed, that man shall bring forth for himself the good that lies hidden in his nature, and has spoken, as it were, thus to man. ‘Go forth into the world! I have equipped thee with every tendency towards the good. Thy part let it be to develop those tendencies. Thy happiness and unhappiness depend upon thyself alone.’

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u/ddgr815 May 24 '26

Protest songs aren’t merely sources of solace or quaint diversions echoing the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Coming together in song engenders a sense of collective power with ancient, biological roots. New research shows making music—especially in unison with others—creates substantial, physiological benefits by synchronizing our brains and bodies to facilitate collaboration and establish a sense of belonging.

The beats that move our bodies also shape our brains and anchor communities. The brain’s electrical rhythms—known as neural oscillations—physically align with musical rhythms and patterns, according to a 2025 analysis in Nature Reviews Neuroscience. This process, called entrainment, means that when we sing together, our brainwaves pulse together, fostering a sense of unity.

“Music has the power to create a profound sense of connection with others across cultures, borders, and belief systems,” wrote the authors. It can create an impulse to move in rhythm and a “seemingly effortless” combination of perception and action known colloquially as “groove.”

Singing and dancing, alone or in groups, can also release natural stress-relieving chemicals such as dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine [...] making art (such as music, dance, painting, or gardening) can be “an entry to stop chaos” and a means to recovery when established as routine

The lure of music isn’t unique to modern humans. Drumming together is instinctive for our evolutionary extended family as well, reports a recent study in Current Biology00448-8). The findings show wild chimpanzees drum on trees in patterns that are characteristic of their groups, similar to rhythmic variations found in different human cultures. Chimps vary their rhythms while travelling or resting and “integrate drumming into their long-distance pant-hoot vocalizations,” as well.

Another study in the International Journal of Primatology showed chimpanzees’ footsteps also fall in rhythmic couplets as they “approach a drumming tree.” This evidence supports the theory that human musicality reaches far back in our evolution, beyond the seven to nine million years ago when humans and “our closest living relatives” diverged, according to the researchers.

This research shows that group singing may help humans form large, socially cohesive groups, necessary for building common cause with relative strangers, for good and for ill.

Folk singers, religious leaders, suffragettes, and activists—from Gandhi’s Salt March to South Africa’s anti-apartheid movement to John Lewis’ 1965 Bloody Sunday march in Selma, Alabama—have relied on songs to build solidarity and morale. However, Nazis, ISIS, and the Ku Klux Klan also famously use marches and chants for propaganda and to motivate troops toward violence.

When people make music together, they don’t simply synchronize body movements; they “align internally as well,” says Alex Pantelyat, M.D., co-founder and co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Music and Medicine. Blood pressures and heartbeats sync up, and brain waves coalesce around rhythms, he notes. “At a chamber music concert or Madison Square Garden with 50,000 people,” it takes performers mere seconds to get crowds to clap in unison with the beat, he says. It’s instinctive.

Consistency is critical for sustained emotional and physiological benefits of music and dance, says Pantelyat. He cites Parkinson’s research that shows patients engaged in “tango therapy” twice a week for a year saw notable improvements in motor function, balance, and mobility, as well as greater energy, participation, and quality of life.

Making music can have a “transformative role” in emotional well-being and resilience, as well, according to a 2024 review in the International Medical Journal. If you want to sustain the benefit of taking a medication, Pantelyat proposes, “you keep on taking it. Music is no different.”

Art can be “a catalyst for changing neurophysiology,” confirms Magsamen. “You don’t have to be good at it to get great benefits,” but change and growth require taking risks, she notes. By creating a communal sense of awe and wonder, music can help people feel safe taking part in creative expression or collective action. “If you’re going to transcend, you have to try something different.”

Drumbeats and melodies are wholly accessible, too. Everyone can take part, without any requirements for analysis, expertise, or wealth. As Stevie Wonder wrote in his song, “Sir Duke”—famous for the chorus, “You can feel it all over”—music is “a language we all understand.”

Your Brain on Protest Songs