Music in the classroom isn't just about music instruction, it's also about inspiration, beauty, relevancy and history.
by Daniel Kobialka, D.M.A.
Jack Black put his own take on the words "music in the classroom" in his movie 'The School of Rock', but that's not exactly what we're talking about here. Learning something new, whether it be a foreign language, math formulas, or reading, can be stressful and emotional for children. Why not use music to promote relaxation and fun? Serious learning doesn't have to always be serious.
Music can be in the background, soothing and calming, stimulating and engaging, but many teachers use it directly to facilitate learning. How many of us as adults can still sing the jingles we heard on commercials as children? Music is fun and makes it easier to learn. Teachers are putting math formulas and rules to familiar tunes; teaching foreign languages by alternating verses in the familiar language with verses of the foreign; and teaching reading through repetition, rhyme and melody (think 'putting Dr. Seuss to music').
Children "flying" around the room to the tune of Rimsky-Korsakov's “Flight of the Bumblebee" feel in their bodies and imaginations what it is like to be a bee. Children with language difficulties can learn through music and singing. Oftentimes, children learn and don't even know they're learning when there's music involved, which sidesteps the walls kids put up around themselves when they think they 'can't learn'.
Many teachers find that it's easy to weave music right into the curriculum. History, for example: the movie 'Swing Kids' documents the ban on swing music in Hitler's Germany; the Ghost Dance is what led to the massacre at Wounded Knee; there are adults alive in America today who were not allowed to dance on Sundays as children and youths. The song "Amazing Grace" is embedded in abolitionist history. Music is grounded in rhythms, patterns, counting and formulas, and can be the basis of a math lesson as well.
Music in the classroom is much more than helping to learn reading, writing and arithmetic. Music can be the point of relevancy that compels a child to show up at school. It can be a take off point for the imagination, and a ray of hope for the disenchanted. Music can symbolize what is good and right with the world, what is beautiful only for the sake of beauty. A good teacher inspires; music can be that teacher.
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