March

Rainy Sunday, spring teasing us, one music festival over and another one- and spring break- two weeks away, we are in the rolling along part of the year, where we can actually get into a rhythm of weekly classes, going more or less regularly along. After the music festival in February, kids have been coming back to class out of the woodwork, reassured by me that we are done with that really hard music for awhile, and can get back to building their fundamentals and playing easier songs.

I like this time of year, though Spring Break always comes not a minute too soon. There is a steadiness to the schedule, and we get to dig in and learn things like slurs on the strings and "going over the break" in clarinets. The beginning students are beginning to build a little repertoire so they can play something at their spring concert.

But it is also at this time that some kids are coming to me, instrument in hand, saying they are here to turn it in. These are usually beginners who, from the first, had trouble remembering to come to class. They had an idea that playing an instrument would be fun; that first rush of coming to music class, being assigned an instrument of their very own, and those first couple of lessons where it was all so exciting passed, and they realized that they actually would be required to put forth some effort. For some, the challenge of keeping up with classwork that they miss for the time they're are in music class is too much, or at least that's what they say.

So here is where my thinking goes kind of haywire. I have read, many times, figures that suggest that students who study music throughout school do better in school. They get better grades, score higher on standardized testing and are more likely to go to college. This idea seems to be pretty universally accepted. But this point, right here, where children begin to self-select their ongoing committment to music, is where we need to look to determine chicken/egg first-ness.

We teachers of the Arts in general and Music in particular use these facts to advocate for our programs. But what are we really saying? I am haunted by the student who a) keeps forgetting to bring his instrument, b) struggles to get any meaningful sounds out of that instrument when he does come with it to class  c) has no clue how to practice at home and d) falls behind in his regular classwork as a result of the 45 minutes a week he is in music class. The way our music classes are structured now, a certain percentage of our initial number of students will fall into this category, and any statistics we might like to cite to prove the value of MUSIC IN SCHOOL are necessarily skewed by this inevitability.

I have been attempting to look at standardized test scores over time in regards to our own ongoing students in Pasadena Unified. I have not found any conclusive evidence that the little bit of music we are able to do with elementary students has any effect at all. Maybe as we follow these same students through high school, we will find significant differences between those who stick with music, and those who don't. But here's the thing: Those students who stick with music all the way through high school usually had little doubt from the beginning that they would do so. That's the kind of student they are. They do well in school because that's the kind of student they are.

There is another category of students for whom music is so important that, even if they struggle to keep up with school work, they continue music. They may not be the A+ students in any academic sense, but they show up and do the work. They may not be the best musician in the class, but maybe music in their school is what they show up FOR. These kids may get through school, barely, but get through they do. I met a former student who was in this category a couple years ago working as an aide at one of my elementary schools. She had been a really tough, at-risk 6th grader when I first knew her, but she played clarinet, I might say, fiercely, and it was playing clarinet, by her admission as a grown-up, that got her to graduation from high school. I love these students- their passion and their resiliance. Statistically, they don't add to a school's API, but they don't add to the drop-out rate either, and that's worth something. But most important in this discussion is that music becomes a sort of life-line for them.

I am beginning to realize that it might be time for an overhaul of our whole music program. First thing I would like to do is make music class part of the schedule for EVERY student. And it doesn't have to be an instrumental music class. General music literacy is being lost, and it might be the very thing that actually affects brain development and academic achievement. If we work with whole classes, giving the classroom teacher much needed release time and removing student anxiety about missing classwork, and do this in the early grades, we will possibly affect real change. We would also create a pool of students who, by fourth or fifth grade, are more ready and able to handle the challenge of learning an orchestra or band instrument.

My long-time dream is this: General music in K-2, with focus on singing, beginning note reading, rhythm, movement, maybe some keyboard knowledge. In third and fourth grade everyone studies violin.  In fifth grade everyone has a choice: either to continue with strings or start a wind instrument. If we did this, consistently and equitably  I do believe there would be benefits to every child at every level, and I also think that there would be many fewer instruments turned in in March.