 | John Shaw '57 (center) is pictured here with students from New Haven's Lincoln- Bassett School during a demonstration of how wooden instruments resonate. |
Music teachers from public schools across the country will converge at Yale on Wednesday and Thurday, May 30-31, for the first International Symposium on Music Education -- an event made possible by the Class of 1957 with an endowment gift to the School of Music for a program promoting music education.
Forty-five teachers will receive the inaugural Yale Distinguished Music Educator Awards. The award recognizes music teachers and administrators who have made major contributions to music programs in public schools in the United States. The individuals were nominated for the awards by music educators, administrators and members of the Class of 1957, and chosen by a committee.
Titled "Music: A Child's Birthright," the symposium will include curricular workshops for public school teachers, panel discussions with internationally renowned music school and conservatory administrators, lectures by leading pedagogues in the field and a recital by renowned pianist Emanuel Ax.
"The objective of the symposium is to bring together international perspectives on the importance of arts education in the public schools," notes Paul Hawkshaw, who is a professor in the Yale School of Music and has given leadership to this project since its beginning in 1997.
The symposium takes its title from the declaration: "It should be an inalienable right for every child to have music education," which was made by Roberta Guaspari, founder of the non-profit Opus 118 Harlem School of Music, which offers music instruction to low-income children. Guaspari -- the inspiration for the 1996 documentary "Small Wonders" and the 1999 film "Music of the Heart," starring Meryl Streep -- will give the keynote address at the symposium.
By honoring dedicated and successful public school music educators, organizers of the symposium hope to raise awareness of the importance of music in the classroom and in American society, says Hawkshaw, noting: "Music is an essential part of how we think and feel."
According to an article, "The Arts Make a Difference," by Nick Rabkin and Robin Redmond, which appeared in the February 2006 issue of Educational Leadership, "[A]rts education can have powerful effects on student achievement. Moreover, these effects may be most profound for struggling students." The authors noted increasing awareness that "the arts were cognitive and that arts study could have serious academic benefits."
The Yale initiative to advance public school music education nationally began 10 years ago when, guided by School of Music Dean Robert Blocker, members of the Yale College Class of 1957 decided to focus on improving and promoting the importance of music education as a meaningful way to commemorate their 50th reunion.
As the first phase of their initiative, the Class of 1957 has set up and funded a program, called the Music in Schools Initiative, to integrate music instruction into the academic curriculum of New Haven's public schools. The purpose is to sharpen students' cognitive and motor skills as well as to make them receptive to music as a positive force in their lives. Students begin with music and movement in preschool, study keyboards in kindergarten and learn other instruments beginning in third grade. Workshops incorporate music into other disciplines, such as math, science and reading. The program also includes several teaching internships for students at the Yale School of Music. As the project expands, the members of the Class of 1957 hope that it will become a regional and even national model.
Don Roberts '57 B.A. believes that the efforts of his class have already made a palpable difference. "The quality of music education is better in the several New Haven public schools touched by our project. ... All of these initiatives will boost the quality of music education, not only in New Haven but across the United States," he says.
Michael Yaff, associate dean at the School of Music, pointing to the initiative's expansion to include music teachers from throughout the country, says: "It is encouraging for the future of music training to have such broad support and involvement in efforts to improve the public schools of America. ...
"Our students have the expertise to make a major contribution as teachers to a generation of schoolchildren," he adds.
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