A glimpse inside Hillsdale College's network of classical schools across the country.
In a recent Second Grade class period, I was teaching the American folk song “Buffalo Gals.” Many of the students were familiar with it through its use in the well-known film “It’s a Wonderful Life,” and I worked very hard to emphasize the fact that this song has endured for a few generations. It is a song that has endured, as most folk songs do, not merely because the tune captures your ear, but because it captures a little piece of humanity. …
I’ve just polished off the report card comments for another quarter of the school year (a process I usually dread, especially as a teacher of several hundred students) and I’m actually pleased as a step back from them. I am tired; one can only say “Johnny does great in music and is learning a lot” so many ways. But I am glad to look back at progress. …
Now’s the time of year we’re reviewing. Reviewing, reviewing, and reviewing. As a music teacher, mine is probably the last subject on the minds of students during the summer break (at least, thinking deeply about music and analyzing it, not just listening to it), and it’s difficult enough to keep the fire of love for music going in the school year, let alone ensure that students are head-over-heels for Verdi when they could reasonably choose the latest hit from Taylor Swift (or whoever is popular nowadays…).…
It’s nearly a necessity. Only nearly, but I really enjoy it and it’s my classroom, so I do it.
At the heart of Mozart’s most well-known opera, The Magic Flute, lies a little aria (solo) that defies expectation. It’s the soprano’s big solo and, boy, do we get vocal fireworks. In fact, when the opera was premiered in 1791, these were the highest notes anyone had ever heard from the stage!…
The following is a transcription of our pre-concert talk, describing the importance and implications of the classical Music Classroom, especially as we view it at Seven Oaks.
“The mission of Seven Oaks Classical School is to train the minds and improve the hearts young people through a rigorous classical education in the liberal arts and sciences, with instruction in the principles of moral character and civic virtue.”…
I had a moment this week where the stars aligned — and it was beautiful, for me and for my students.
Our fourth graders are getting an overview of music from the Classical era and met Joseph Haydn the other day. Haydn, for those who don’t know, is called the Father of the Classical Symphony (his genre-defining symphonies number 107, compared to Mozart’s 60-ish or Beethoven’s nine), and was the teacher of both Mozart and Beethoven.…
Each year, the students in our schools compete to win (or in our school’s case this year, to defend!) the Scholar’s Cup. While it’s an enjoyable and friendly competition among Hillsdale member schools, it’s also a great opportunity to see how students are accumulating knowledge that leads to a life well-lived.
This year’s Fourth Grade challenge is a musical one:
Write a two paragraph explanation of how the melody for one song from the music curriculum developed and why it is appropriate for its genre using the basic elements of music.…
The dust cover for E. D. Hirsch’s Cultural Literacy reads:
"In this forceful manifesto Professor E. D. Hirsch, Jr., argues that children in the United States are being deprived of the basic knowledge that would enable them to function in contemporary society. They lack cultural literacy: a grasp of background information that writers and speakers assume their audience already has. Even if a student has a basic competence in the English language, he or she has little chance of entering the American mainstream without knowing what a silicon chip is, or when the Civil War was fought. An