Educating With Music

All teachers want their students to listen to them. The whole enterprise of teaching really doesn't work unless students are listening to their teachers, and teachers have developed varied methods of capturing students' attention. It's no easy task; there is a lot of competition for a young person's attention these days. In my years of teaching, I found myself competing with my students' peers, students in the hall, magazines stuck inside the covers of their books, students' cell phones covertly hidden in folds of clothing, and so on. But of all the things that I competed with for students' attention, nothing was more difficult to overcome than students' iPods.

I could be upset with America's youth for putting on a set of earphones and tuning out the universe. During my tenure in the classroom I fought against Kanye, Beyonce, and 50 for my students' attention and often lost, despite a no iPod policy at school, but I can't help but reflect that I do similarly. It goes without saying that there is an appropriate time and place for listening to music privately - and a classroom is most definitely not that appropriate place - but it still is worth noting that music has captured the attention of humanity, for better or worse. Were things any different when students' attention was held by Nirvana and A Tribe Called Quest? Talking Heads and Bruce Springsteen? Led Zeppelin and Parliament Funkadelic? John, Paul, George, and Ringo? Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong? Each of these musicians was popular with the student-aged demographic and frowned-upon by the teacher-aged demographic during their heyday. And furthermore, it has only been when those teenagers aged to the point of adulthood that the music they loved carried a bit more social currency.

Here, then, is a radical proposition: instead of competing with the things that capture our students' attention, why don't we figure out how to use those things to teach them? Instead of telling students repeatedly to turn off their music, why don't we use music to educate?

We can all point to music that has influenced our lives and the times in which we live. Songs such as the Beatles' "All You Need Is Love", Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On", or Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are a'Changin'" are said to have defined an era or a movement. Even though their music is probably different (and even though some of us might not like it as much), the principle remains with the younger generation. The message might be diluted or convoluted in today's music, but the messengers are still just as effective. So instead of resisting the medium of transmission that has captured so many us outside the classroom, we should try to embrace it, and use it to carry our message inside the classroom.

Case in point: the slightly kooky band They Might Be Giants has released a series of educational albums, the latest titled "Here Comes Science." All the songs on the album highlight certain scientific principles, ranging from Speed and Velocity to The Periodic Table of Elements. Their content is accurate, and probably much more memorable than most things classroom teachers could whip up. The science teacher in me couldn't be happier, and the music lover in me is also left quite pleased. This represents a highly innovative way to find and capture students' attention, and to teach something of academic substance.

The principle is not limited to music, of course. Anything that effectively captures a young person's attention can be used as an academic tool. Social networks on the internet can be potent educational tools. Magazine style writing might be a more effective way to compose textbooks than more traditional ways. Computer-based learning is part of this movement. And we can even look to the success of Sesame Street for an example of how to reach young minds through channels they're already investigating. Thought about in this light, one has to wonder why teachers are working so hard in order to earn students' attention with dated media and methods. So instead of telling kids to turn off their music, let's try to find ways to make the music they're listening to more educational.