Skip to main content

March Means Music Because…

 



Yesterday I wrote a great piece about Target - - the history of the company itself and the boycott. I was one hundred per cent satisfied with it.

My iPad ate it. Blogger ate it. I don’t know who ate it but I know it was tasty.

You’ll just have to take my word for it.

Today I’m harkening back to an old post because, if the blog-munching demons are still hungry, I know I’ve got this one saved.

*****

Music in My Head, Village Green/Town² March 20, 2020

March is Music in our Schools month. Yesterday I came across a post by local blogger HoCoHouseHon that is a celebration of music from start to finish. Worth the read:

Soundtrack of the Self

The writer touches on a theme that means a lot to me:

Music is emotion, music is a lodestone. It doesn't matter if you can name chords or identify instruments in a symphony - it doesn't matter if you had piano lessons or played in your elementary school band - music is where our souls rest. Where we rejoice - where we are truly alive. Maybe the only way you hear music is in jingles or pop songs played low on the radio - it doesn't matter. Music is a part of us.

This post reminded me of a piece I wrote in 2015 entitled “Remarkable and Unique,” about the Music and Memory project.

Music connects. Music is the connection. Music travels within the brain to all the deepest parts of the self. Even when cognitive areas are damaged or degraded, the networks within us that are music can still thrive.

Whether you become a professional musician, a lifelong amateur one, or simply enjoy music in your day to day life: music is for everyone.

*****

March is still Music in Our Schools Month. One quick thing before I go this morning:

I keep reading articles about the current mental health crisis, especially among teens. I know that the issue is complex and there are many components. But one thing I wish we would look at more closely- - and with legitimate concern - - is the damage we do to young people by reducing their access to music programs, arts electives, and subjects that are perceived as “non-academic.”

These are the places where kids experience multiple ways to handle stress, learn to articulate feelings, to work with others, to feel a sense of connection and belonging. 

Every time we cut those we are cutting away at opportunities for self regulation. We are not making them more college-and-career ready by narrowing their options. We are jeopardizing the development of an organic process that encourages self esteem and builds pathways for lifelong wellbeing.

Do we really care about mental health or is it just something we wring our hands about occasionally without taking any action?

Again, music education isn’t the only thing in schools that support social emotional learning and mental health But it’s Music in Our Schools Month, so I’m giving them a shoutout. 

I don't expect that everyone in the whole world will choose to be a musician as their profession. But I do think that we are all musicians in our own ways. … Whether we listen to a whole album or a handful of songs - whether we see our identities reflected in our playlists or just enjoy dancing around the kitchen - we are all a part of music, and music is a part of us. It belongs to all of us. - - from “Soundtrack of the Self”, HoCoHouseHon


Village Green/Town² Comments 




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents.  When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...
1 comment
Read more

They Can Wait

This is not a typical Saturday post. That’s because, in my community, it’s not a typical Saturday.  Oakland Mills High School, after years of deferred repair, needs massive renovation. It’s pretty simple: when you don’t fix a problem it gets bigger. The school system itself said the the OMHS school building was  "no longer conducive to learning" back in 2018.  2018 .  But Thursday the Boad of Education voted to push it out of the lineup of important projects which will be given the go-ahead to proceed soonest.  In my opinion it’s a terrible decision and sets a dangerous precedent. To explain, here’s the advocacy letter I sent in support of Oakland Mills High School. I was rather proud of it. I am writing to ask you to proceed with needed renovation at Oakland Mills High School in the most timely and comprehensive manner humanly possible. I have read the letter sent to you by the Oakland Mills Community Association and I am in complete agreement. You are extremel...
1 comment
Read more

Separate and Unequal

  Remember “Separate but equal”? Remember how that really meant that Black schools languished in  broken-down buildings without adequate heat or toilet facilities, with cast-off, ragged learning materials, underfunded and largely ignored? The Supreme Court struck that down in 1954. The evidence was clear that separate was not equal. Plessy v Ferguson had led to - - no, endorsed - - deeply unequal schooling and opportunities. We tend to think of Brown v Board as being purely about racial integration. It was not.  It was about the logical consequences of segregation. And they were not, not, not equal. The ruling in 1954 didn’t transform public education for non-whites into a land of milk and honey by any means. But it articulated some essential truths in a way that made including everyone a legal precedent which could be relied upon and built upon. It was better than what came before it but it rested upon unsteady ground. It did not necessarily change the hearts or minds ...
1 comment
Read more