We have all heard about how poorly some students, and even schools and districts, are performing on the Common Core State Standard [CCSS] assessments. While we need to look closely at those numbers, I have decided to try a different tack. I have set out to learn what’s worked–which schools, teachers, librarians, and principals have found successful–and transferable–ways to meet the challenge of the new initiative. I will return to this in future columns, but I want to start with a completely unexpected story that’s truly inspiring, and related to student success, passion, and commitment.
Last week I went to visit J.H.S. 52 at the tip of Manhattan in the Inwood section. As a teenager I used to take the subway to a location near the school for my clarinet lessons in what was then a Jewish neighborhood; or to look for arrowheads (rumored, I never found any); and to take in the other wonders of Inwood Park. Inwood is now a dominantly Dominican neighborhood, and on this visit I was going to meet the principal of a middle school. Dr. Salvador Fernandez has a real vision of how everyone in a building can and must work to meet the challenge of the Common Core. Indeed, he is the 2013 winner of the Elizabeth Rohatyn prize from Teaching Matters, for creating a school where teachers, and teaching, counts. I will tell you more about him once I have digested the many notes I took. But let me start with a wonderful side story.
After we spoke, Dr. Fernandez escorted me around the building, stopping in on classes. When we reached the music room he proudly told me that J.H.S. 52 had one of the very few marching bands in Manhattan, and that they played merengue, arranged for band. I poked my head in, and asked Brian Moore, the music teacher, where he had found marching-band arrangements of Dominican dance music? Here is the answer he sent me:
“As a middle school music teacher, my primary objective is to teach students to perform together as a band. It is a unique opportunity. From that experience, as they mature, will grow an appreciation for music and an interest in the great masters of composition and performance.
However to reach that point, they must first learn to play an instrument, read music, and work together as an ensemble. Most of my students have no music education background and have never done any of these things, but they’re very motivated by the kind of rhythmic music they are accustomed to listening to, both in pop culture and from their largely Dominican heritage. This was the seed for the marching band. The music can draw from all styles, from classical and jazz to pop and world music, while always maintaining a strong rhythmic drive.
I learned early on about raucous auditorium audiences and the impracticality of setting up and breaking down music stands and chairs, and decided my students would be most successful if they could be really loud and extremely mobile. I wrote a couple of grants for marching-music folios with lyres and drumline instruments, and the Inwood Tiger Band was born. While working on this, Dr. Fernandez arrived at the school. He had tried to initiate a marching band in other places, but had never come across the right director. His support, coming at just the right moment, was instrumental in our program’s development.
I arrange music for the band to motivate the students, highlight their strengths, and expand their knowledge of repertoire and styles. Classic Dominican merengue, with its heavy rhythmic emphasis, was, in my mind, a natural fit for the band. And students were excited to play the songs that they have been hearing all their lives. I was confronted with two problems, however. I didn’t really know the music and there were no band arrangements, much less marching-band arrangements. So I went to the Dominican Republic, listened for the most popular melodies, asked the Dominican staff at our school about favorite songs, and wrote my own arrangements to suit the band. We have since played my arrangements of Compadre Pedro Juan, Caña Brava, El Africano, El himno nacional de República Dominicana, Alegre vengo, El baile de sua sua, and Mi burrito sabanero. Every year I try to add another merengue tune to the list, along with an arrangement of whatever the biggest pop song was the summer before, and whatever else the need arises for, if I can’t find a ready-made arrangement that will work for us.”
A video is available to see and hear the band in action–it’s made from a handheld camera, not high quality, but when I got to the third song, Caña Brava, it was so good it brought tears to my eyes, which is exactly what Dr. Fernandez said would happen.
What is the lesson here? Passion, commitment, creativity, connection to students and to their culture and heritage, combined with a sense of where to lead them–this is everything we all believe in–and you can dance to it.