Do the ears of children hear better?

OK. I know I'm obsessing a little on this Joshua Bell article. (see yesterday's post). And my apologies to those of you who already talked this out when it was blogged about some time ago. (This is not a blog that stays current.)

I don't know if I would have stopped to listen to Joshua Bell. For me, that probably would have depended, like everybody else, on the urgency with which I needed to make that train.

But I was struck by this point in the article:

"But the behavior of one demographic remained absolutely consistent. Every single time a child walked past, he or she tried to stop and watch. And every single time, a parent scooted the kid away."

What do you make of that? Is it because children are so pure that they immediately recognize and are drawn to beauty? Is is because they have so little concept of time that listening to beautiful music would naturally seem more important to them than getting anywhere on time?

I'll tell you one thing. A home-schooling, stay-at-home mom with children would have stopped. That is the beauty of being at home with one's children. You can stop to look at and talk about the flowers, that interesting bird, or that lovely music. The freedom to nurture one's children while not being tied to a schedule is wonderful--- especially with preschoolers. Of course, this freedom can be sacrificed by keeping a family schedule that's too full.....but that is the subject of another post.