Sitting on their knees on the carpet and surrounded by musical instruments, second-graders Isaac Herman and Ray Lord look at each other’s crossword puzzles and diligently search for phrases like “The Doors,” “Elvis Presley” and “Aretha Franklin.”
The two children agree that the crossword puzzles are the best part of the afternoon.
Isaac and Ray are part of a weekly program run by Northwestern students at Washington Elementary School that teaches music education and music appreciation to elementary school pupils. The program introduces children to different genres of music, from classical to jazz to rap.
“This is much different from a normal music class,” said Laura Millendorf, a Weinberg sophomore.
Created by Millendorf and Music and Weinberg sophomore Nicole Sadler, the music program has been running since Fall 2000 under the Northwestern Community Development Corps. NCDC’s music program is held only at Washington.
Although Washington has a music curriculum like all other District 65 elementary schools, its budget is smaller and shrinking, Millendorf said.
Washington was chosen for its racial and economic diversity and because NCDC did not run a program there.
Sadler and Millendorf have previous experience giving music and theater lessons to children, but they said they have always wanted to do a program like this. Their goal is to “give music to as many kids as possible,” Sadler said.
Peter Webster, professor of music education and technology, endorsed music programs as critical for a child’s education.
“There’s very few things in school that teach the affective side,” Webster said. “Music puts it in context. It involves both the intellectual and the emotional.”
Music enables children to play, to create and to express themselves, all abilities that are “very necessary for human development,” Webster said.
Five to seven NU students volunteer for the music program Wednesdays from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. The program started out with 20 children on Thursday afternoons, but after moving to Wednesday, several students left because of busy schedules. Currently seven to nine elementary students attend the weekly program.
The volunteers plan lessons and arrange for students from the School of Music to come and play their instruments. Afterward, the children are allowed to play with the instruments.
Two weeks ago the children learned about opera. Although the children said they did not like the music, they eagerly remembered the names of opera composers like Engelbert Humperdinck and Giacomo Puccini during last week’s review session.
Later the children received candy and listened to the songs of the week, “Milhaud” and “Moonlight Sonata.” They also learned how to read music staffs with life-sized models.
Because last week’s theme was rock ‘n’ roll, the children watched video clips of Elvis Presley and the Beatles and looked for names of famous rock groups in a crossword puzzle.
“This was a really good day for me,” Isaac said, after finding 11 words.
Like most of the other children, second-grader Kellan Hanrahan likes watching the videos and getting candy. The best part of last week’s program, he said, was watching a video of the Beatles.
The music program is not funded by NU, so all expenses come out of Sadler’s and Millendorf’s pockets. Without funding, the program cannot bring in guests like NU a cappella groups because “a cappella groups won’t perform without funding,” Millendorf said.
“We haven’t formally applied (for funding) because we were told there was no way we could get funding for candy for the kids or poster boards,” Sadler said. “They say it’s because it doesn’t directly benefit Northwestern, but it does because (NU) students are volunteering for this program.”
“We learn how to be kids again, which is something college students forget,” said Christine Choi, a Weinberg freshman. “It’s refreshing to get off campus and come here.”
