Finding Harmony

Hello, and welcome to the second installment of Liquid Logic - STEAM in form and function. I'd like to devote this week's blog to helping friends of mine that are coming on-line in the northern part of the state. Developing integrated arts classes can be daunting. Like the culinary arts, the right ingredients are necessary. If you have the wrong ingredients, incorrect mixture, or improper baking time, you'll leave a foul taste in the mouths of your students. So, how do we do it?

When I was going through Butler University I fondly recall my professors using the terms "cross-curricular" and "interdisciplinary" often. I remember hearing them say things like, "In order for your arts program to survive you must make yourself useful to the general curricular classes." My own experience was rather difficult. I set out to connect with my colleagues in the English department first. I recall sending an e-mail to the department head requesting a synopsis of what they would be teaching that year. It was my goal to select choral music for the year along the lines of their curriculum, so that we could study together. For whatever reason, and there may well have been some good ones, I received no response.

It was my good friend and colleague, Michael Buck, instructor of Spanish, that had the foresight to consider my request. Michael suggested that I select Spanish music that I was comfortable teaching. He agreed to work with me on a cultural project covering both our standards. Our first project culminated in a deep study of Spanish history and culture set around the song "Las Mananitas." Since then, Michael and I have teamed up on no less than six other projects. Even now that I work predominately with English, Michael continues to include the arts in all of his cultural studies as a premier tool to bring Spanish culture to the students.

That's the first key: Get out of your classroom! Find connections. Create connections. You're going to need to understand the needs and expectations of your faculty and work with them.

When our school became affiliated with the New Tech Network in 2008, I was encouraged to explore the possibilities. What would an integrated class look like? How would it function? I devoted myself to discovering ways to connect music,  particularly choral music, to everything - Science, Math, Physical Education, History... What I assumed would be difficult became rather easy when I realized one basic truth: Music is a language. Music has a system of writing, grammar and syntax (music theory),different dialects (style and genre'), and finally, music expresses thoughts, feelings, emotions - it has meaning. These are the components of language. Music has them all. The fine arts in general contain these items. It's difficult to see them in the other arts, but they are there.

This is the second key: The arts are a universal language. Every culture has the arts and uses them in a meaningful way to communicate.

This revelation led me to the third key: The arts are interwoven into every facet of the fabric of society.

What does this mean? It means where there's a Napolean Boneparte, there's a Ludwig van Beethoven. Where there's a George I of England, there's a George Frideric Handel. Every major event, every figurehead, every moment in history from Bob Dylan's "All along the Watchtower" to Rage Against the Machine's "No Shelter"... it's all connected. I truly believe that I can connect the arts to anything.

So why aren't we making those connections?

The difficulty is two-fold. Arts teachers worry about performance. We struggle to get ready for our concerts,   dramas, art shows... The pressure for us comes when we realize that we need the kids to put on a show. Yet there comes a time when you need to decide whether you're going to have a social club, or your going to truly educate the kids. I'm talking about a real and deep understanding of the connections between humanity and the stuff we create, art or otherwise.

General education teachers worry about tests, and rightfully so. It is unfortunate that our federal and state governments have pushed us to the point where we worry about a snapshot of how our students will perform academically. They have forgotten our mission: to fill the kids in on every great thing that they're missing. It's not Math... it's the order of the universe! It's not History... it's a record of our species! It's not Science... it is the laws of existence; and the arts are representative of those subjects in ways that may help you reach kids that you could never touch before. Not everyone cares for Physics, but most people love Star Wars. The kid that goes home and works on his "flux capacitor" may someday win a Nobel Prize for Physics. That's what it's all about.

So, remember the keys: Get out of your classroom. The arts are a universal language. The arts are interwoven into every facet of society. These keys open the door to all possibilities - and that's what I want to talk about next week; how to integrate this stuff with examples.

Until then...