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by Nicole Kauffman
When Megan Parmenter’s first-grade students at Fairview Elementary School used to talk about their future goals, they mentioned working at the mall, learning to ride a skateboard, or visiting an amusement park.
But something changed during the first couple months of school.
“Now, when students talk about things they would like to do in the future, they talk about music, continuing to play the violin, and the desire to learn how to play other instruments,” Parmenter said.
Since late September, the students have been part of a program that provides free violin lessons to Fairview first-graders
during the school day. The lessons are taught by Indiana University Jacobs School of Music associate professor of music education Brenda Brenner, assistant director of the IU Pre-College String Program, and a team that includes Kasia Bugaj, a doctoral student in music education; ChingYi Lin, a doctoral student in violin performance; pre-college instructor Joan Doike; and undergraduate students from the Jacobs School.
Fairview music teacher Kathy Heise, who runs an after-school music program for students in fourth through sixth grade, describes her reaction to news of the free violin lessons as “almost disbelief.”
“I was flabbergasted because I couldn’t believe that we could be so fortunate,” she said.
A bridge to better performance
Nestled in downtown Bloomington, Fairview Elementary School teaches several of the county’s most underprivileged children. About 80 percent of its students qualify for free lunch, and another 10 percent qualify for reduced-price lunch. The school consistently performs well below the state average on mandatory tests, and its attendance also is below the state average. The student population is transient.
The violin lessons began after anonymous donors gave 65 violins—worth more than $15,000—to the Jacobs School. Melissa Korzec, associate director of development for the Jacobs School, said further funding for the program is being provided by the Boston-area Summer Star Foundation for Nature, Arts, and Humanity.
Its president, Shalin Liu, is a 1977 graduate of IU.
Fairview was chosen because of its demographic makeup. These six- and seven-year-olds are not attending concerts at IU on a regular basis, Brenner said. And although outreach initiatives—a one-time school assembly, for example—can show the kids what a violin can do, “they would have never had the instrument in their
hands,” she said.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that the benefits of learning an instrument at an early age are many: Confidence is boosted; attitudes are better; students’ reading and math skills improve, as do test scores and attendance.
But there’s no hard data to back up that anecdotal evidence, says Lissa May, chair of the Jacobs Music Education Department.
One goal of the violin program is to get that hard data by examining information collected by the Monroe County Community School Corp. over this school year. Results for the Fairview violin students will be compared with data for two control groups—second-graders at Fairview and first-graders at Bloomington’s Highland Park Elementary School. Parental involvement and cognitive development also will be reviewed, and May hopes to look at data over the long term.
May wants to publish the findings of the original research as widely as possible— in music and psychology of education publications, academic journals, trade magazines—to get information out to people who can use it to effect change in their communities.
Jacobs School of Music Dean Gwyn Richards, impressed by programs in South America that aim to bring about societal change and give youth a positive way to redefine themselves through music, isn’t afraid to think big: Could the Fairview program be initiated at other schools, in other counties, across the state of Indiana—a state where music instruction isn’t typically offered in public schools until grade five or six?
Could the program positively affect academic performance and graduation rates?
Could IU turn out graduates eager
to lead similar programs in this part
of the country?
“I want people in another state to ask themselves, ‘What’s happening in Indiana? Because the state of Indiana has made music literacy on par with reading literacy,’” Richards said.
He acknowledged an under-representation of the Bloomington community in IU’s pre-college string program. Its students generally come from University, Rogers-Binford, and Childs elementary schools, where academic performance is above the state average, and where parents are likely to have a familiarity with IU.
| “I want people in another state to ask themselves, ‘What’s happening in Indiana? Because the state of Indiana has made music literacy on par with reading literacy,’” |
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“If we want to be increasingly relevant (as an institution), it’s important to reach out to that part of the community that doesn’t comfortably deal with the IU community,” Richards said.
The Fairview violin students will be able to continue lessons next year, and an application process already is in place for IU students interested in teaching, Brenner said. In addition, Highland Park Elementary can expect some sort of string program as a result of its participation in the study.
“We have not talked about how it will work, but probably I will send my students over there to do an after-school program for some early elementary kids,” Brenner said.
Held to the same standard
The donated violins are stored in a wooden cabinet in a small corridor next to Heise’s classroom in Fairview. There are three sizes of the instrument, and each student was measured for the right size at the start of the program. They do not take the instruments home.
The first-graders did not have a choice about participating in lessons; the lessons simply are part of the curricular day. That ensures that the kids in the study are not just kids interested in learning an instrument.
The three first-grade classes each have a 25-minute large-group lesson led by Brenner twice a week, during Heise’s regularly-scheduled music class. In addition, each of the 46 students forgoes recess once a week to have a small-group lesson.
While creating her curriculum for Fairview, Brenner referenced the Indiana standards for first grade to help strengthen what the Fairview teachers already do in the classroom.
“I felt that this was particularly important because Fairview is a school that struggles in that way,” she said.
The violin curriculum otherwise is structured the way Brenner structures it for her students in the pre-college string program.
“I have the same standards and the same expectations for these kids that I would have for any child,” Brenner said.
Just two months into the program, Fairview faculty already could see its positive effects. Teacher Kali Crites, for example, says her students take pride in their accomplishments in the classroom and accept challenges with less fear and reluctance.
“They don’t get as frustrated if they don’t understand a concept right away,” she said. “They just keep trying until they figure it out on their own, or ask questions if they absolutely need to. I would say it has given them a sense of confidence and independence that they did not have before.”
Music teacher Heise, who assists the IU instructors in her classroom, has noticed the children’s focus improve since starting the lessons. They have longer periods of concentration, she said.
She’s also impressed with how respectful they are of the instruments: “At first they didn’t know what to do with them, but when they come in [now], they handle them carefully,” she said.
Fairview principal Karen Adams had wondered how the students would deal with the expensive stringed instruments.
“There are a couple of students, I will say, it’s hard for them to keep their hands off of things,” she said. “They’re pretty impulsive, you know, wanting to talk out, touch things.”
Being trusted with such special instruments helped them rise to the occasion,
she said.
“They are just so proud of what they’re doing,” she said.
Sounding board: What the kids say
The Fairview students are oblivious to the fact that they are part of an academic study. For them, it’s all about the instrument.
“I loooove the violin!” exclaimed first-grader Mark Campbell at the start of a recent lesson.
First-grader Jared Stewart asked for a violin for Christmas. His grandmother, Loretta Stewart, drove two hours from Louisville, Ky., to see him play in a December recital at Fairview, during which the kids performed for parents for the first time.
Six-year-old Kyle Bunyon describes playing the violin succinctly as “fun.” His favorite part is using the bow.His mother, Joannie Bunyon, stood up and cheered during the recital every time her son played.
“He is so excited. It’s his night, almost like a debut, with all the practice,” she said.
Students Haley Hauter and Karisma Johnson both have expressed an interest in private violin lessons. Karisma’s mother, Stephanie Sutton, said playing violin is the first activity
in which her six-year-old has really
shown initiative.
“She loves it,” Sutton said. “It’s her favorite thing in school. She constantly sings notes and pretends she’s on it when she’s at home.”
“It’s all she talks about,” said Karisma’s father, Calvin Johnson, who traveled from Austin, Texas, for the Fairview concert.
Others aren’t so vocal. Brenner talked of one boy who’s so painfully shy that he doesn’t speak at all. But he plays the violin, she said.
“What has surprised me most about the Fairview violin program is that every single student has learned to play,” Parmenter said. “It is so impressive to watch three first-grade classes, in which no students had prior music experience, learn to play the violin in such a short amount of time.”
Resonance for all
Brenner said she was prepared to provide a “wonderful opportunity” to the Fairview students; she herself was the recipient of free lessons at her inner-city school in Wichita, Kan., in the second grade. What the professor wasn’t expecting was how much of an impact the program would have on her own IU students.
“They get to take those ideas they’re learning in the classroom and try them out,” she said. “The questions they are asking about teaching are so much deeper than if they were just reading about a kid in a book.”
Doctoral student Bugaj, assistant instructor for the Fairview program, says the experience has been nothing short of life-changing for her. “You come in there to teach subject A, and you don’t realize that you come in to teach other things,” she said.
She tells of a breakthrough for one girl who repeatedly said she just couldn’t play the violin.
“I can’t,” the girl said. “I ain’t good at nuttin’.” Bugaj eventually coaxed her through the notes.
“We went a little slower, and she did it completely perfectly,” Bugaj recalled.
After a stunned pause, the girl threw her arms around her instructor, screaming, “I did it, I did it!” She insisted on playing again—without any help.
At the recital the following week, the girl was dressed up, standing front and center, clutching her bow with confidence. At the end, she bowed proudly alongside her classmates.
Doctoral student ChingYi Lin, who plays accompanying piano during the lessons, said she has learned through the program that talent is everywhere—“that everybody is capable, given the opportunity,” she said.
“Some of (the kids) have the potential to be really good leaders. They are self-assured,” she said. “If steered in the wrong direction, it could be disastrous. I feel that’s what’s really special about this project.”
Heise thinks just being introduced to something out of the ordinary to the students has been crucial for them: It can show them there are things in life—things about which they previously may not have thought—that that they might really enjoy, she said.
“Their interest is piqued,” she said.
Dean Richards hopes the program will encourage the children to ask themselves,“If I can do this, what else can I do?”•
Nicole Kauffman graduated from the IU School of Journalism and is a freelance writer in Bloomington. Her food blog, “Nico’s Eats,” can be found at www.nico-eats.blogspot.com.
