To All Teachers: It's Music to Their Ears. 'Cause uptown funk gon' give it to you!

When I was 40 years old, and 19 years into the "Kid Business" I was chatting with my pal Joe, a math teacher, who said to me, "Bob, their music just sucks!" I chided Joe, a very popular teacher, "Joe, we can't think like that. You are sounding like our grumpy parents."

From the moment a student stepped into my classroom, they knew that music was, and still is (ask my National University student teachers), sometimes the only thing I had in common with the students.(More on that at a later date.) My classroom walls were bordered with album covers. On the first day of class rather than read them the rules, I gave them a tour of "the Metaphor Cafe."

Now, before I explain the symbolism of that tour, I am sure many of you teachers are thinking (1) I am not Bob Pacilio, and (2) I teach something that has nothing to do with music--like math or science. There are very few people who are not moved by music. Mozart, Gershwin, Ray Charles, Beyonce or Bruce Springsteen, who remind us that music has a beat. It often has lyrics. We dance to it. We gather around the campfire to it, identify with it, protest to it, make out to it, and become inspired by it.
And for many, we get married to it.

As for it not being a part of math and science--on the contrary, songs about nature, global warming, the animal kingdom, and about 'going where no one has gone before' are all out there. My favorite is Bruce Hornsby's "Look Out Any Window"--a 1989 bit of foreshadowing about global warming (ahem, it IS REAL and not a hoax perpetuated by China so our manufacturing companies have to shut down [NY Times Editorial this week]). And anyone wishing for snag a copy of my power points just needs to contact me on FB or at my website www.robertpacilio.net.

As for math, all music is math. The two are linked. Study after study shows that math and music go hand in hand. One, two, three.... "The Logical Song" by Supertramp is a good example. But more likely math teachers can and should play classical or jazz music during study sessions, quizzes, tests, etc. It calms. It sets a mood. New electronic music does the same. Yoga studios have caught on to this. Namaste.

Need I point out to social science teachers, PE teachers, health teachers, foreign language teachers how critical music is? Okay, forget for a minute the songs with lyrics that apply to the English teachers. Here are a few songs consider "Blowin  in the Wind" social science; "[Isn't it] Ironic" language arts; "Welcome to My Playground" physical education; "Waterfalls" health; a bounty of music from Spanish, to French and to, my favorite, Italian singers sets the mood like no other... an evening with Dean Martin in  Roma knocks me out!.

But forget all the curriculum stuff for a moment. Remember, we are teaching kids--they are our customers. You gotta be hip. (Unless you have little interest in their world, and then they will react similarly to yours. Remember when we were young, and how we often respected teachers who were 'in tune' with our world?) Students want to know about our music, but only if we have mutual respect for theirs. Believe me, the album cover of Johnny Cash "Live at Folsom Prison" always started a conversation with the kids. If you don't like something about their musical world and speak to it, then know what you are talking about. Remind them that before Beyonce rolled, Tina Turner rocked the river and Aretha Franklin got RESPECT. Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger inspired Springsteen' guitar and harmonica. Nat King Cole to Ray Charles to John Legend is the R&B double play combo. The kids might not know what you're talkin about but the hook is set and curiosity baits them. After all, it's "My g-g-g-Generation, Baby"

The bottom line is it will get their motor runnin', get their juices flowin' get their feet tappin' and make them smile as they walk into YOUR classroom. They will look at you and think: "Whoa--what in the Bruno Mars is going on in here?"
That's when you got 'em.
 So show them that Uptown Funk gonna give it to 'em:

Girls hit your hallelujah (whoo)
Girls hit your hallelujah (whoo)
Girls hit your hallelujah (whoo)
'Cause uptown funk gon' give it to you
'Cause uptown funk gon' give it to you
'Cause uptown funk gon' give it to you
Saturday night and we in the spot

Don't believe me just watch (come on)