The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Steven Van Zandt brings music-based school program to Connecticut
STAMFORD — Steven Van Zandt doesn’t have statistics to back up the effectiveness of his music-integrated education program, but he knows it’s working.
Success, he said, can be measured in the enthusiasm of students in the classrooms.
“I think that’s what it’s all about,” he said.
The legendary musician and activist, best known as a guitarist for Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, and for his acting roles on shows such as “The Sopranos,” joined Gov. Ned Lamont on Tuesday for a virtual press conference to announce a partnership between his foundation and the state.
Van Zandt is the founder of the TeachRock program, an initiative from his Rock and Roll Forever Foundation. The program will be offered at no cost to 10 Connecticut school districts in the first year of the partnership, said Irene Parisi, Connecticut’s chief academic officer.
During the brief press conference, Van Zandt spoke about his program as both something that could be added to existing curriculum, and also as an antidote to traditional schooling practices.
“Someday we’re gonna realize that testing isn’t learning,” he said. “And of course, every statistic shows that a student that takes a music class does better in math and science.”
The TeachRock program is designed to incorporate music into lesson plans for a variety of subjects, not just music class. That could mean a lesson plan that dives into popular music of the time during a history lesson, for instance.
The broader goal, Van Zandt said, is to keep kids engaged, in school, and graduating at a higher rate.
“If we can keep a kid in high school until graduation ... they have a real shot at a productive life, a much better shot,” he said.
Desi Nesmith, acting deputy commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Education, said programs like TeachRock can lead to greater student engagement.
“If we reflect back on our days as students, I think we would all agree that the
educators and the learning experiences that we found most engaging and interesting, were those that wouldn’t be in the textbook,” he said.
For Lamont, Van Zandt’s program seemed like a natural fit to get students re-committed to education in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which kept them isolated from others, contributing to a “learning loss” that has impacted all grade levels.
“They’ve been isolated,” he said, of Connecticut students. “They’ve been alone. And what TeachRock does is inspire young people.”
He said Connecticut students have gone through “a really tough time.”
“The first thing we have to do is get kids smiling again,” Lamont said, adding that Teach Rock “is just what we need right now.”
Christine Nick, a program officer of TeachRock, said the program could be used in a variety of ways. She described one example of a lesson on the Grateful Dead and how they made accommodations for audience members who were deaf or hard of hearing.
“A teacher might find that that makes sense that they’re doing a unit on sound and acoustics because it talks about the science they’re in,” she said. “Or it might also make sense for a different teacher that’s looking at disability studies, and looking at bringing broader perspectives into their classroom.”
According to the TeachRock website, over 40,000 teachers across the country use the curriculum.
Stephen Armstrong, social studies consultant for the state, said using music can be highly effective in social studies and history classes.
He said he’s had students in the past with minimal interest in history, but “it’s through the lens of music that I’ve been able to get them involved.”