CULTURE
MUSIC IN OUR SCHOOLS
PHOTOGRAPHY BY CASSIDY BARLOCK
BY HALEY MONG Music appears throughout all of our lives whether we were sung a lullaby as a baby, played in the fourth-grade band or continue to create new Spotify playlists. Known as “Music in our Schools Month,” March not only opens us up to spring, but initiates the celebration of the unique intersectionality of music and our education. Starting as a one-day celebration in 1973 and extending into a week, “Music in our Schools Month” progressed to include the whole month by March 1985. With an increase in budget cuts in schools, “Music in our Schools Month” aimed to articulate the significance of all children receiving music learning opportunities. Celebrations during the month include local performances and songwriting as well as music teachers speaking about the benefits of music education.
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MARCH 2020
Junior music education major Hannah Weller desires to be a music teacher in response to the lack of musical care in her own school growing up. She considers music education a necessity for all ages. “Music education, more than any other subject, teaches us what it is to be human,” Weller said.
When other disagreements separate us, music mends. Senior music composition major Sam Brown discovered music through his family, learning the guitar from his dad and watching his parents sound check every Sunday morning. Now a guitar teacher, Brown said, “[Music] goes past the line of culture, goes past the line of religion, and it goes past the line of language.”
As humans, we desire life-giving connections. Music provides us with a means to connect with and understand others.
Weller emphasizes music’s contribution towards unity, saying that music is for everybody.
Nelson Rockefeller, former United States Vice President and an advocate for “Music in our Schools Month,” highlighted the month as a time for music to mend intellectual and emotional forces and “strengthen international and racial bonds.”
“[It] uniquely allows us to interact with different cultures and time periods, and with people that are different from us,” Weller said.
