MUSIC: Now Don't Get Mad at Me...

by Steve Peha

I don’t talk much about music in this newsletter and I really should, if for no other reason than I loved it in high school, was a music major in college for a while, and had a short but interesting professional music career in my 20s. More to the point: I continue to believe as I always have that music—at all grade levels—plays a vital role in the education of every child who is fortunate to have access to the time and the teaching I had when I was in school.

But there’s more here than meets the ear.

While most of the evidence we have about academic growth shows very little progress in student achievement over the last generation, we have seen incredible improvement in the quality of what kids can do in school sports, visual arts, drama, and especially in music.

Take a quick listen to these recordings on YouTube of Sammy Nestico’s famous Basie Band composition “Wind Machine”:

Count Basie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKE_MP5oKvM

Buddy Rich
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbkKL9tG2fI

Central Washington University
https://youtu.be/-VCopafOSdo

The first recording represents the effort of perhaps the greatest band in jazz history. And Buddy Rich is probably considered by many to be the world’s greatest Big Band drummer. So what are these kids from a small state college doing in the mix? Playing very well, thank you very much.

I went to Central Washington University for a while and have always been proud to call their jazz program leader, Chris Bruya, a colleague, a collaborator, and a truly outstanding educator. Like me, Chris has crested gently into his 50s but when i called him up last month around 8PM his time, he was in his office—practicing. He’s a full professor running on of the best programs in the country and he still practices all the time. “Gotta do it,” he said. “I can’t teach these kids how to play like professionals if I don’t demonstrate it for them and share my own experience.”

But this is more than just a shout-out to a dear friend and all that he and his students have achieved. I think there’s an interesting point to be made here regarding education reform: Our kids don’t read, write, or do math much better today than they did a generation ago, but even a jazz band of undergrads from a small school in the middle of nowhere plays almost as well as two of the best jazz bands in the world. How is that possible?

Here’s my theory: Over the last 30 years, while most of us have been trying to reform education, music teachers, drama teachers, sports coaches, art teachers, and a bunch of other extracurricular folks have been doing some serious woodshedding as we might say in the jazz department. These people have not only been studying the pros, many of them are pros.

Most of the educators I know in these positions, even in elementary and middle school programs, were at one time or are now currently active in their respective professions. These folks have learned a thing or two about teaching but that’s not their secret. Their secret is that they are accomplished professionals within their disciplines. Professionalism is the foundation of their curriculum.

I listen to high school and college jazz bands these days and am blown away. I watch high school football teams run the Read Option like Chip Kelly did at Oregon. The annual spring musical at my old high school sells out eight shows in a huge auditorium and probably grosses over $100K. The drama director there, Mr. Reuben Van Kempen, has probably sent several dozen kids on to professional careers in singing, dancing, acting, and whatever other theatre arts remain—including several kids who grew up to work on Broadway.

We can blow this off by saying, “Oh well, kids like these activities.” But kids have always liked them. So what accounts for the unimaginable improvement all over the nation? I think it’s a “professional curriculum.” I think that when we learn from people who do the work they are teaching us to do, we get better results—far better.

No one is testing the kids these folks teach and yet they are constantly striving to improve. No one is raving about teacher ed programs for these people, yet they are proving to be outstanding educators. Could it be as simple as a little real world professionalism or even serious college experience? Could a love for kids and a passion for one’s game or art trump every possible reform we could ever think of?

What would happen to education in our country if this were true—and we embraced personal professionalism as the fundamental principle of improving our schools?

And PS: None of these folks is using some scripted district curriculum. Every one of the teachers I know in these areas teaches their own curriculum—the curriculum of their lives and their craft.