Post by momto4 on Mar 28, 2010 8:29:36 GMT -5
www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/napertalk/2126539,6_4_NA28_PAGE2COL_S1-100328.article
Music a gift for kids, not just a budget item
March 28, 2010
There I sat in the Gwendolyn Brooks Elementary School gymnasium in Aurora with hundreds of other first-grade parents, all of us doing the parent thing, holding up cell phones or other small electronic devices to capture the moment in video or photos.
The "moment" was the first-graders' spring concert held March 24.
As the children from the four classrooms walked onto the stage and took their places on the risers, I found myself breaking into a smile that stayed with me for the next 30 minutes or so. There was my daughter among the nearly 100 students, all dressed up for the occasion. Gone were the usual school-day wear of gym shoes, jeans and casual, comfy shirts. The girls looked so pretty in their spring dresses and Mary Janes or other such shoes. Many wore cardigan sweaters with embroidered flowers. Not to be outdone, the boys were young gentlemen in their best shirts (some even with ties) and sweaters and pressed pants.
No dirty faces or hands here. It was show time.
The program had a theme, the music teacher informed the audience -- "It's a Small World." And while hearing that title prompted some rolled eyes and deep sighs in the audience for that famous, or infamous, Disney song, we listened as she explained the children would be singing songs from around the world, representing many cultures.
"They have worked very hard over the past month or so on these songs. They have done a good job," she said.
That hard work showed, as these young 6- and 7-year-old voices filled the gym with music from around the world. Our children, who are just learning to count coins and tell time and sometimes still don't remember to tie their shoes, were singing in French, Spanish, Japanese, Zulu and an Indian dialect. It was amazing.
During the past several weeks, I had off and on heard my daughter singing in her room as she played. I could not make out the words, and it often did not sound like any language with which I was familiar. I took it as she and her younger brother making up some imaginative "kid speak." It became clear what those words really were as I proudly heard her and her classmates singing.
She was practicing these many different songs in different languages without really knowing it. The songs had become imbedded in her memory during those many hours of practice at school and were now just songs she knew ... like those on the Hannah Montana CD she once played over and over again in the van.
As those children sang their closing number, "It's A Small World," I thought, "What a wonderful gift their teachers had given them." They opened up new worlds to the children because, as they learned these songs, the children learned a bit about the cultures of their origin. And now these songs are part of their world, too.
The concert also made me think of the recent news of teachers losing their jobs and cuts to the music program, because School District 204, like so many other districts in the area, has financial hardships.
Music is always one of the first areas school districts look to cut when they have budget problems. It is not seen as a revenue-maker; it costs money. But what officials and many parents forget is that music is far more than the marching bands, orchestras and choirs. Music transcends our lives every day. All of us listen to music in some form, and that interest in music, whatever genre you prefer, grew out of being exposed to it at a young age. We forget that as adults. We take it for granted.
But think how unfulfilled our lives would be without it. Music touches our souls, making us recall events in our lives decades later.
My daughter may not go on to join the school choir or play an instrument in the band. But chances are she and many of her classmates will remember the songs they learned for a long time, and they will recall the memory of their first school concert as the years go on.
What a gift that is.
Judy Hostert-Harvey is chief web editor for Sun-Times Media West division.
Music a gift for kids, not just a budget item
March 28, 2010
There I sat in the Gwendolyn Brooks Elementary School gymnasium in Aurora with hundreds of other first-grade parents, all of us doing the parent thing, holding up cell phones or other small electronic devices to capture the moment in video or photos.
The "moment" was the first-graders' spring concert held March 24.
As the children from the four classrooms walked onto the stage and took their places on the risers, I found myself breaking into a smile that stayed with me for the next 30 minutes or so. There was my daughter among the nearly 100 students, all dressed up for the occasion. Gone were the usual school-day wear of gym shoes, jeans and casual, comfy shirts. The girls looked so pretty in their spring dresses and Mary Janes or other such shoes. Many wore cardigan sweaters with embroidered flowers. Not to be outdone, the boys were young gentlemen in their best shirts (some even with ties) and sweaters and pressed pants.
No dirty faces or hands here. It was show time.
The program had a theme, the music teacher informed the audience -- "It's a Small World." And while hearing that title prompted some rolled eyes and deep sighs in the audience for that famous, or infamous, Disney song, we listened as she explained the children would be singing songs from around the world, representing many cultures.
"They have worked very hard over the past month or so on these songs. They have done a good job," she said.
That hard work showed, as these young 6- and 7-year-old voices filled the gym with music from around the world. Our children, who are just learning to count coins and tell time and sometimes still don't remember to tie their shoes, were singing in French, Spanish, Japanese, Zulu and an Indian dialect. It was amazing.
During the past several weeks, I had off and on heard my daughter singing in her room as she played. I could not make out the words, and it often did not sound like any language with which I was familiar. I took it as she and her younger brother making up some imaginative "kid speak." It became clear what those words really were as I proudly heard her and her classmates singing.
She was practicing these many different songs in different languages without really knowing it. The songs had become imbedded in her memory during those many hours of practice at school and were now just songs she knew ... like those on the Hannah Montana CD she once played over and over again in the van.
As those children sang their closing number, "It's A Small World," I thought, "What a wonderful gift their teachers had given them." They opened up new worlds to the children because, as they learned these songs, the children learned a bit about the cultures of their origin. And now these songs are part of their world, too.
The concert also made me think of the recent news of teachers losing their jobs and cuts to the music program, because School District 204, like so many other districts in the area, has financial hardships.
Music is always one of the first areas school districts look to cut when they have budget problems. It is not seen as a revenue-maker; it costs money. But what officials and many parents forget is that music is far more than the marching bands, orchestras and choirs. Music transcends our lives every day. All of us listen to music in some form, and that interest in music, whatever genre you prefer, grew out of being exposed to it at a young age. We forget that as adults. We take it for granted.
But think how unfulfilled our lives would be without it. Music touches our souls, making us recall events in our lives decades later.
My daughter may not go on to join the school choir or play an instrument in the band. But chances are she and many of her classmates will remember the songs they learned for a long time, and they will recall the memory of their first school concert as the years go on.
What a gift that is.
Judy Hostert-Harvey is chief web editor for Sun-Times Media West division.