| I remember the listening center I set up in my | | | | lot to me and my take on the arts in the education of |
| elementary school classroom as if it was yesterday. It | | | | my children. |
| was my first year of teaching, and I was so proud of | | | | Music engages children and allows them to learn |
| that blue denim beanbag chair and cassette tape | | | | concepts that sometimes are difficult without the beat |
| listening station that I had put together to introduce | | | | or without the rhythm of a song. It allows children to |
| Spanish to my second graders. I had decided not to | | | | remember important facts, whether they are in history, |
| subject the little seven year olds to me singing | | | | science, math or language arts. Imagine the feeling of |
| acappella on the tapes I made at home, but I did | | | | success a child experiences once he has mastered his |
| incorporate some rhythmic beat to make the learning | | | | ABCs thanks to that little song placed to the melody |
| easier. I chanted the vocabulary word in English first | | | | of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. You have seen the |
| then in Spanish and repeated the pair again, leaving | | | | delight on many faces of toddlers and preschoolers |
| time for the student to repeat the words out loud. | | | | who master that twenty-six letter song! |
| It worked! The little darlings were begging me to make | | | | Music helps many children build a level of confidence |
| more and more tapes each weekend, thinking I had no | | | | they might never have experienced had it not been for |
| other life outside of being their teacher. (For those of | | | | music. Children gain nourishment from music in their |
| you who are teachers you can so relate to that | | | | classrooms, in their homes, in their daily routines. |
| feeling!) And so it was, way back in the early 1980s, I | | | | Sometimes that child who feels no success in the |
| was carrying on the tradition of what generations of | | | | academic side of school finally is introduced to music |
| parents and teachers had been doing which was to | | | | with that one special teacher and the rest is history (no |
| introduce new concepts to kids with rhythm and song. | | | | pun intended!). Drop outs may become drop ins thanks |
| Why does this technique work so well that even as | | | | to a little rap, a simple play of jazz or a classic tune |
| adults we recall a cute little tune our French teacher | | | | played during art class for inspiration. |
| taught us to learn the colors in French or that silly little | | | | Exposing children to other cultures, other people, and |
| chant our Science teacher rapped off to us about the | | | | other lands far from theirs come many times through |
| Solar System so that we never forgot the order of | | | | music. What a lovely way to hear what the new |
| the planets as long as we could recite our little rap out | | | | student in school used to listen to daily by appreciating |
| loud? There are many studies, some recent and some | | | | and playing the music from his country during his first |
| from years back, that explain to us how music works | | | | week in class. Imagine the impact that teacher makes |
| so well in the learning process. | | | | on the success of this new student by embracing the |
| As adults, we intuitively realize that students who have | | | | culture of this new student, inviting her to bring in a CD |
| had the opportunity to study music tend to do better in | | | | from home or a song book from her childhood. The |
| school and in life, and over the years there has been | | | | encouragement it provides her as a new member of |
| quite a lot of research to support those feelings. It has | | | | this society along with the world experience it allows all |
| been proven that children who study music perform | | | | of the members of the class to have are things no |
| better on tests. There have been many studies | | | | text book could ever provide with such feeling, such |
| conducted where the conclusions point to kids | | | | emotion. |
| participating in music programs show enhanced | | | | Music is the universal language of our world. Whether |
| academic performance and better social skills. | | | | you speak English, Spanish, French, Hindu, Mandarin, |
| It is even more astounding to note that a study | | | | Farsi, or any of the other thousands of languages in |
| conducted by the College Entrance Examination Board | | | | our world, you will always be connected to your |
| reports students with experience in music | | | | neighbor, your co-worker, your new friend by music. |
| performance or courses that involved music scored | | | | And it is that music that should continue to be a large |
| more than fifty points higher on the verbal section of | | | | part of the learning you expose your child to and insist |
| the SAT and more than forty points higher on the | | | | that his school continue to incorporate in order to bring |
| math section. As a parent and teacher that means a | | | | the learning to life and make the learning fun. |