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Teachers: 5 Songs to Play for Your Students NOW and WHY
A long time ago, I thought that the first day of school was about the rules. That ended 25 years ago when I realized that there was no greater method to make the students believe that you, the teacher, were like one of the horrifying teachers in the film Pleasantville; if you have not seen the film — for shame! You have missed a film that captures the form of magical realism so “colorfully”…but I digress.
Music, you see, is the medium that teachers and students still have in common. It may be the last link a teacher has to the ‘kid culture’ — especially if you are over 40 years old (and still think Flock of Seagulls was a band that would become legendary). I learned that a song could speak to students much like it speaks to me and, without them knowing, create a literary bond.
That’s right — I said literary. For all you stubborn snobs who believe that only Dylan and his ilk of folk singers were the last of the literary luminaries, I have news for you. When you were following that Pete Seeger group down the Hudson River, the generation before you thought you and they were commie/ hippie/ Woodstock druggies. That generation looked at you “upstart crows” and dismissed you completely. So it is time to get off your high horse and recognize music is literature, even if “it’s still rock and roll to me.”
