Infused in education, and a number one criteria for communication, should be music.
If you pay close attention to the one distraction, you’ll see, music is it. From infancy We put music on; for our babies to relax them, rock them to sleep. We sing lullabies, put cute wind up toys on their cribs suspended above their little bodies, to calm and hopefully lull them to sleep, always twinkling with sweet little sounds of familiar tunes.
Most of the entertainment geared for kids has music. In early education, even the ABC’s is in a song.
At the first opportunity a child has these days, especially from middle school on, they’re exploring music videos and down-loading music. Though there’re no filters, personally, I’m okay with that, a song can illicit an important conversation with your child. And you can’t hide the music from them, trust me. Early on, I noticed my children making lip sync videos of their own to lyrics of the like, I’d never share here in writing. But by then, they’d become so jaded by those words, “what I’m gonna do to you & what I want you to do to me,” they did’t pay much attention to the true meaning anyway! It was more about the rhythm, and rhyme and who learned ALL the lyrics, or who could recite them better & with the most pizzaz.
I’ve often thought, wouldn’t it be imaginative, if our schools would infuse more music into the curriculum? It would bring many kids onto the same playing field too. In fact, recently, I heard a story on NPR about a science teacher who assigned his students a project where they integrated all the elements into a rap song. I think that’s brilliant. What a way to learn and perhaps retain the information! Do you remember all the elements? Do you remember all the lyrics to that Steely Dan song, Aja? Put it on. Surprise yourself.
Through song and music, everything can be taught or learned. Through music one can learn to self soothe or meditate and heal. They’re singing in your children’s ears right now. About sex, drugs, love, war, living & dying. There are lots of questions in these days of uncertainty. Music is an important venue to keep the communication lines open. Music is an important outlet.
Most importantly, It does bring people together….
xo jac
Let’s share our music on spotify; jac’s music & playlists
