Susan Castillo Speech OMEA Conference January 15, 2010 PART 1 When I think about the power of music in our schools and in our lives, I think about the Klamath County Schools Honor Choir. I had the pleasure of hearing these young singers on a visit to schools in the southern part of our state. I was so moved that I invited the choir to perform at the Oregon Celebrating Student Success Awards. That s the event where we honor schools across our state making significant progress in closing the achievement gap. And let me tell you, the Klamath kids were a major highlight of the night. The Klamath choir is made up of children from a part of our state that has been hit hard by high unemployment. Many of them come from families that are really struggling to put food on the table. Yet they come together to sing, and when their voices harmonize, they make the most beautiful music. In the education world, you often hear arts advocates talk about how vital music is to learning to read or do math. I believe that, too, but let me talk a moment about why music is important for its own sake, too. What would our lives be without music? The appreciation of music be it classical or jazz or rock or hip hop is a fundamental part of the human experience. And when we make music whether we re strumming a guitar or playing the tuba in the school marching band the creative experience awakens our minds and lifts our spirits like nothing else. And music isn t just an individual experience. Put together a band or a choir, put on a performance for an audience of one or one thousand... And you can see that music creates community, too. Another group I m inspired by is called Playing for Change, and it s a music project that brings together musicians from all over the world. The concept involves getting these wonderful musicians and singers to perform their own versions of the same song - Stand by Me, the old Ben E. King tune, for example, or One World by Bob Marley. The different and distinctive versions are then melded together to make a single song, which really makes an amazing statement about how music can break down barriers and bring together people. Proceeds from song sales go to a foundation that builds music schools for children across the world. But really, you have to hear and see it to get it, so I urge you to visit playingforchange.com or checking out their videos on You Tube. 1
Now, turning from the global to the local... It s no secret that music programs in our schools have been slashed over the years. All our children have suffered as a result, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Many of these students don t get opportunities for arts and enrichment outside of school. If their parents are struggling to pay rent, they don t have the money for music lessons or concert tickets, either. If our schools don t step up, these children will miss out. My No. 1 priority is supporting excellence and equity in our schools. The two go hand in hand... You can t have one without the other. I believe equity is absolutely the key to creating opportunity for ALL our children. And yes, that means a commitment to reading and math and science and social studies. And it also means a strong commitment to the arts as part of a well-balanced, well-rounded education. That s why, as supporters of public education... as lovers and makers of music... as educators and parents and students, we must rededicate ourselves to prioritizing music in our schools ALL our schools. Which brings me back to the Klamath County Honor Choir, and really all children who make music in our schools. These children may come from towns and communities going through some very tough times. Yet they understand that by making music, by lifting their voices to sing a simple song, they can rise above their own circumstances and raise the spirits of everyone lucky enough to be listening. So let me leave you with some of the lyrics to the Klamath choir s signature song. It s called Why We Sing, and it s about the power of music in our lives and in our communities: Here s how it goes: Take my hand and sing with me. Soothe a soul. Mend a heart. Bring together lives that have been torn apart. Share the joy. Find a friend. It s a never-ending gift that circles back again. This is why we sing. Why we lift our voice. Why we stand as one in harmony. PART 2 Over the holidays I had a chance to visit with my grand nephew who is 14 and plays the alto clarinet in his school s band. In the course of talking about how that is going he said very strongly, music is really important. I loved how he expressed himself. 2
When I was a young girl, the Beatles were the biggest thing going. I remember being home on a Sunday night in 1964 and watching them in glorious black and white on TV s Ed Sullivan Show. I remember singing along to songs like She Loves You and I Want to Hold Your Hand. I went out and got their first album, called Meet the Beatles. I spent hours staring at their faces on the cover and played the record til the grooves wore out. I grew up with the Beatles... From the time they started out as four mop-tops singing Love Me Do... to the time when they donned psychedelic suits and pushed the limits of pop music as Sergeant Pepper s Lonely Hearts Club Band... and right to the end, when they let they let their hair grow shaggy and urged us all to Let It Be. I stayed a fan through their solo careers and still love their music today. The Beatles changed music forever, incorporating wide-ranging influences from rhythm and blues to country to classical into their music. More importantly, they changed the world. And not just clothes and hairstyles, though they did do that. They changed how we see and experience the world. When they sang All You Need Is Love, we believed them. The Beatles impact was worldwide even in the former Soviet Union. I recently watched a fascinating documentary on OPB called How The Beatles Rocked the Kremlin. During the 1960s, the USSR banned the Beatles. To them, the Beatles represented Western culture and corruption. The government actually put out anti-beatles propaganda. Yet Soviet teenagers loved the Beatles as much as I did. But in the USSR, being a Beatles fan was strictly underground. Kids couldn t go out and buy their records, so they had to get smuggled copies. That was how they rebelled, by listening to the Beatles. The documentary suggests that the Soviets were more afraid of rock music than of nuclear weapons, and that ultimately, the Beatles helped to bring down Communism. Now, I can t help but bring these things back to schools and students. As I watched this program about the Beatles, I got to thinking about the power of music in our lives today. I thought about how important it is to make sure that our children learn music. How vital it is to their development to teach them to play and sing music, and to appreciate Mozart and Charlie Parker and, yes, The Beatles. There are research studies indicating that music education may enhance academic performance. But I believe music is something much more powerful than that something that is important for its own sake. When we cut music in our schools, we re cutting children off from the things music represents beauty and self-expression and freedom. 3
Music can make us laugh or cry or think sometimes all at once. Music has the power to rock the house, raise the roof, and bring down the walls that divide us. Music liberates us, mind and spirit. We cannot stand by and say that music is only for some children, that we cannot afford music education for all children. That s why we must dedicate ourselves to supporting music programs in our schools in every way possible... Let your school boards know how much you value music. Tell your principals and teachers, too, and ask them what you can do to support music in the classroom. Reach out to the community. Get involved by donating instruments, giving music lessons, whatever it takes to support the arts in our schools... For ALL our schools, and ALL our children. PART 3 When I was growing up in Southern California, music touched my life one morning in a very personal way and I will always remember that day. It was my father s birthday and early in the morning, we heard a knock at the door. It turned out to be my grandmother and my step-grandfather. They had brought a record with them and a hi-fi that s what we called stereos back in those days. And I remember them plugging in the hi-fi and putting on the record and hearing a mariachi band play Las Mañanitas, which is a traditional Mexican song that s played for you on your birthday. I won t sing it here... Trust me; you don t want me to sing it here. But here s a bit of the translated lyrics of Las Mañanitas, which literally means The Little Mornings : Wake up, my love. Wake up and see the sunrise. The birds are singing, the moon has set. The morning is coming now; the sun is giving us light. Let me tell you, that song sends me back to that moment all those years ago. That s the power of music in our lives. When we hear or play music, we respond in the deepest core of our being. Anthropologists tell us that song started with the cavemen, that it even predates language. They speculate that our prehistoric ancestors sang and clapped hands, maybe even drummed on the hollow skulls of wooly mammoths. That s why a Gallup Poll taken some years ago, but which I think it still relevant today, indicated that 95% of Americans consider music part of a well-rounded education. There are also some studies out there indicating that students who take music do better in math and reading and even score higher on the SATs. What remains indisputable is that music awakens our minds and our spirits to new possibilities. 4
And I mean that literally. Music is integral to neural development, getting those synapses firing in our brains. And music feeds our souls. Who isn t moved to tears by Ode to Joy? Who can t help but smile when they hear Louie Louie? Or dance when they hear It Don t Mean a Thing If It Ain t Got that Swing? But sadly, as I m sure everyone here is aware, music education has taken a hit in our schools. All kids suffer when music gets cut and none more so than those children on the wrong side of the achievement gap. They may not have the resources to access the arts outside of school. So when their school is forced to cut a music program, that student s chance to learn an instrument, to really learn music, may disappear. And that s a tragedy. So I am asking everyone in this room to redouble their commitment to the arts and especially music in our schools. Let your school boards know how much you value music in your curriculum. Tell your principals and teachers, too, and ask them what you can do to support music in the classroom. Do anything and everything you can to keep music alive in our schools... ALL our schools. 5