Christine M. Hall
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain
US Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona’s childhood home was filled with music. Both of his parents were performers, and he and his brother were their backing band.
“My brother played guitar and I played percussion. My sister joined in the chorus. We grew up singing together. part of it,” he said.
But in too many school systems, students don’t have access to music education or instruments, he says. After two years of his dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, US schools are suffering from teacher shortages in some areas, new demands on school security, and a dramatic setback in learning. Cardona sees music education as part of the solution for rebuilding students and schools.
“As a father, seeing how my music teachers have helped my kids over the past two years, they were in high school during a pandemic and lost their sense of community,” Cardona said. “And those music teachers know how to reconnect them to the community.”
Cardona was in Nashville, Tennessee on Wednesday to meet with educators across the country who have been selected as Distinguished Music Teachers through the Country Music Association Foundation. Over the years, CMA charities have supported a variety of music education programs, including service grants to nonprofits, teacher professional development funding, teacher mentoring, and other assistance. has contributed $29 million.
Vivian Gonzalez, teacher at Miami Art Studio 6-12 @ Zelda Glazer, Florida, said adapting to teaching music online and in person during the COVID-19 pandemic has been a challenge . But she said her music and art teachers understood those changes as her students and parents suffered the secondary effects of the pandemic.
“While the students were away, there were many students with home insecurity, food insecurity, and mental health crises at home and personally,” Gonzalez said. , what we discovered was that our art teachers paid the most attention to these situations, because we had known these students for a long time.”
Cardona said he heard a teacher in Texas formed a mariachi band to keep his students connected to their school. Some students said music programs were the main reason they stayed in school during the pandemic.
“I have to say that music teachers were the most innovative and had to introduce instruments that were probably inaccessible to their students or keep them engaged,” he said. .
Another teacher honored this year, Emily Riley, said music not only builds self-esteem and discipline through practice, but it also helps children build relationship skills.
“One of the things people are really worried about is social skills coming out of the pandemic,” said Riley, a music teacher at Julia Green Elementary School in Nashville. It was worth it.”
Country star Kix Brooks, one half of hitmaking duo Brooks & Dunn, was one of the artists who helped raise awareness of the need for music programming. The initiative, which began with a focus on Nashville schools, has expanded nationally, in part because the artist performed for free at his annual CMA Fest, which he raised $2 million for the foundation this summer. expanded to
“At the time, we had enough money to reach out to big cities like New York City, New Orleans, and Los Angeles, which had huge concentrations of kids who didn’t have music programs,” Brooks said. Said… Nashville teacher.
On Wednesday night, teachers and principals mingle and have dinner with country stars like Maddie & Tae, Ashley McBride and Britney Spencer. CMA Foundation executive her director Tiffany Kerns said the idea of an evening celebrating teachers came from their remarks that music education is being treated as secondary to core subjects.
“One of the key things our teachers told us was, ‘We don’t feel valued within the walls of our school. We weren’t seen as subjects,” Kearns said.
Before dinner, Brooks warmed up with a group of high school musicians playing his song “Rock My World (Little Country Girl).” But while the kids were learning the songs the way they were recorded, Brooks was teaching them how to improvise on stage, a key skill for Nashville musicians.
“They just learned the record, so I’m throwing them curveballs,” he said. “There was a time when it stopped playing on a chord and I said, ‘Just keep playing. Keep playing that chord. I’m going to grab my harmonica and jam with you guys.'”
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