Terrific post. That video is so cool and those kids so perfect - running us a whole range of responses. They will dine out on this day when they are older, even if they barely remember it.
I thought straight away of seeing WH Auden read when I was about 15. We must have been taken from school. I remember sitting on the floor in a hall and watching this shambling man in a stained loud check suit. I remember nothing of his voice or of what he read to us. I try and try but there is nothing. Nonetheless, I tell myself (and others, like now), that I once heard WH Auden read and feel pleased and privileged.
It's funny, just this morning I was wondering to myself if it's still a thing for writers to come into schools or to go on field trips like what you're describing. I have a vivid memory of Jon Hassler visiting my sixth grade class to talk about his YA book, "Four Miles to Pinecone" partly because it was one of my favorite books, but also because my mom was the one who arranged it through his publisher.
When I was growing up in Illinois and Gwendolyn Brooks was our state poet laureate I think she tried to visit just about every school in the state, and when she came to my grade school it was like the arrival of a visiting dignitary. I remember how we all wrote poems in advance and they were posted on the hallway walls for her to see.
I have no idea if this kind of thing still happens in schools, does it happen?
wow amazing article. Beautiful word and even a more fascinating choice of topic. Who we all are going to be but most importantly what are the children of today and tomorrow are going to be. You are a champ and my hero for this one. John a tip for a friend of a friend. Shhhhhhhh its an open secret.
Some one from US and even capturing so beautifully . Its a Cold Play song the Weekend. Its a story of children primarily. They are the angels established by great greek and roman painters. Why because what all children see is just a world that is so beautiful that only our childhood rememebr. The colors the magic of childhood. If a child takes that beauty with him or her to adult hood he and she would just change the world and some fine day even the universe.
Who ever is the director of this video exactly knows what you and I and every person with a heart is talking about. And hatts off to write this beautiful article. Note the colors in the video and its is Indian slums. Its magic happening there. That is how beautiful the world is for every child. Kindly write something about the children of Gaza too. No Child should be left behind as a friend would always like to share most beautiful world for the other friend. without sharing with each other the beauty of the world, it would always seem meaningless. Thank you for sharing your article and the video of the song. Here I cant watch the video and share it with you for free. for infinite times I like to. What a world and what an amazing times. Again Thank you America for making my life so beautiful while I sitting at home in Lahore, Pakistan.
This article beautifully captures the essence of curiosity and wonderment about the potential trajectories of children's lives based on their diverse reactions to a musical performance. By selecting children based on their reactions to the performance, the experiment aims to explore the varied paths individuals may take in life. It's a refreshing perspective that challenges traditional notions of success and highlights the importance of embracing the unique qualities and behaviors of each child.
Explore captivating Contemporary, Romance, Thriller & Suspense, Science Fiction, Horror, and more stories on my Substack for FREE at https://jonahtown.substack.com
Well said, regarding public schools. We need more freedom for kids and it seems less and less, especially with the fear-mongering about "learning loss." Kids need so much more freedom than we are giving them, in school and out of it.
What a lovely read this week. As the child of a musician and NY theater stage manager (my mom in the 1950s which is a whole other story), I think I grew up seeing musicians and actors respond to music and words they were performing or watching in much the same way. Perhaps we are lucky that some people don't learn those lessons about limiting our responses to what we see, read, watch, and hear. I want to sit down with them and talk about that experience and to connect what I saw in the visual responses to what they say.
Thanks for such an inspiring post. I really connected to the idea of how different we all are, and how all of us have so much potential to contribute from those differences. The kids' reactions in the video, their non-reactions, anxiety, intensity, exhaustion, trances, boredom, fidgeting, participation, and group collective articulate all of those differences.
While watching them, looking for who would connect to the music, the aspirational wish to "Trip the light fantastic" came to mind. My cousin Emily, not as studious as the standard would dictate, could do that... not just when she was touring the country in her point shoes, but watching her in the kitchen, with the radio on, eyes closed, nothing else in the world but Em, the music, her heart, and her movement. She, for sure, trips that light!
I've learned to forgive myself for not being the student I thought I could, or should have been; while also realizing my own abilities to hyper-focus, to connect disparate dots, to innovate, and uniquely solve problems. When I'm in that zone, I can connect the dots disparate!
So did anyone in the video react inappropriately? Some didn't get enough sleep. Another maybe listens to hip-hop, plays sports, reads books... If you believe that nurturing all of our differences results in tripping the light of humanity., no one in that room was right or wrong. Everyone was fantastic!
I love your idea of actually starting from scratch and rewriting as a method of revising. Reading your newsletter over the last few years has made me realize that I never learned to write, and in particular never learned to revise. (I placed out of the writing requirement in college, for one thing.) I wish I had had someone who taught me how to make my writing better. I'm picking up a few tips from you, which I appreciate!
Thanks for the mention of Disillusioned. Like you, I grew up in the Chicago suburbs and am only now in my 40s starting to figure out why the suburbs are far more problematic then I ever realized at the time. This looks like a really interesting book that may help me think this through a little more.
This post reminded me of a book I've been reading to my kids recently by Mo Willems titled "Because". It's the story of a young girl who happened by chance to find herself in a seat experiencing the magic of music and how that experience moved her deeply such that she became a conductor. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1368019013
The book is beautifully written (as are most by Willems). It also deeply connects to my own hopes for my students and the influence that I hope I will have on them as an educator. What a privilege to be part of even one step of their "because" story.
Might be a bit out of your normal repertoire, but I'd recommend that you to give it a look! Will almost certainly be the quickest and most delightful read of your week.
I don’t give much thought to what one song does to a group of kids - I think their development and success and growth is very much a slog, wouldn’t even think to spend much time on one reaction to one experience. Their journey has so many different facets and challenges and signposts that the notion of this post doesn’t even register with me.
By the way - this is one great experience for them, hopefully one of many where interesting music is a part of their education and daily lives.
I won't make any claims to any kind of potential validity to my proposed documentary. It's a thought experiment mostly reflecting on the incredible variety of responses and behaviors on display in the video. Where I'll disagree is the suggestion that one experience couldn't have an outsized impact on one's future. My Substack avatar is a picture of me from 3rd grade when Mrs. Goldman has us write instructions for a PB&J sandwich and I had a literal epiphany about how writing works in the world, an insight that I believe as an inciting moment in terms of the trajectory that resulted in me becoming a writer. I described its importance in this piece: https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/just-visiting/kill-5-paragraph-essay
Obviously a bunch of other stuff had to happen to (the other signposts), but those things never would've happened without the first thing.
I'm curious about your choice of the word "slog" to describe success/growth, a word with negative connotations around unrewarding or boring work. Is your view that development is inevitably coupled with slogging way through the unpleasant or boring stuff, or am I reading too much into a word?
I am looking at it from the perspective of what it takes for kids to be successful, etc., and that so much needs to go into that - whether as a parent or an education system - and that it often doesn’t work out or doesn’t work very well. (Pessimism much?) Just shows you how someone can take a fun and interesting experience/discussion and sap the joy out of it - you are welcome.
I will completely agree with your “one experience can make a big difference” thought. It can, but maybe not everyone has that experience.
I guess bottom line I am a rainer on parades and in this case think about the kids in an assembly or classroom and all the tough things they will face. Shouldn’t have said anything! But thanks for engaging.
No apologies necessary, this is fantastic! This is the kind of response that helps me think through my own thinking.
I tend to agree about the various components that it feels like have to come together to put students on a good trajectory. If you think about all the things that can happen to cause a derailment, any positive outcome can begin to seem sort of miraculous.
One of the things I've been really obsessing about is what "success" looks like in these contexts, and what we mean by saying we want kids to be successful. I think that aperture in school contexts has become far too narrow which is making kids hate school. Like a big success in school would be figuring out what you want to do in your life going forward, maybe to forever, but for at least the next few years. I don't know if school is particularly successful at that.
It gets me to thinking about how schools could make sure every student has at least a shot at one of those experiences. I don't really have a great answer for that, maybe because it's a moving target.
Interesting point. I digress, but there seems to be more effort these days in supporting “workforce” type career programs starting in middle school and continuing through HS. One thing that’s clear if you’re a parent or involved in education is - even at the college level - career support is very haphazard. Going to college is supported, but a career path from college or directly from HS is often anything but clear. I get that “learning for its own sake” has value, but there are lots of kids who would benefit from better career guidance.
I think career guidance is always going to be hard because of the shifting nature of work and careers. For a fair bit "learn to code" was a sort of magic saying that was supposed to lead to secure employment, but technological change has made coding - particularly low level coding - increasingly vulnerable. I'm a believer in learning for its own sake, but I actually think most learning for its own sake also has the potential to have utility in terms of future trajectories. This afternoon I've been working on a chapter in my next book about how my three English degrees well-prepared me for a career in market research, an industry I didn't really know existed until I started working in it.
Where my education fell short was not in what I learned, but in making me aware of how what I was learning had genuine use in the world beyond school. Because I could write, I was a good thinker, and thinking had use. I think it will continue to have use - at least I hope so - but to your point, I think we need to be more intentional about showing students how thinking is valuable as a skill and how it applies to different career paths. After that, I think students need help knowing what the possibilities are and then trying to fit the path to their interests and personalities. I had students majoring in business and information sciences who had chosen it because it was a "good" major, but who also said the idea of spending the day at a desk sounded like torture. Even if they earned a valuable credential, it wasn't going to be valuable to them.
It brings me back to my thinking about the varieties of behavior on display in that video. The best paths for those kids will (and should) vary widely. How do we give them the support they need to identify and then walk those paths? I think schools are not great at that.
Terrific post. That video is so cool and those kids so perfect - running us a whole range of responses. They will dine out on this day when they are older, even if they barely remember it.
I thought straight away of seeing WH Auden read when I was about 15. We must have been taken from school. I remember sitting on the floor in a hall and watching this shambling man in a stained loud check suit. I remember nothing of his voice or of what he read to us. I try and try but there is nothing. Nonetheless, I tell myself (and others, like now), that I once heard WH Auden read and feel pleased and privileged.
It's funny, just this morning I was wondering to myself if it's still a thing for writers to come into schools or to go on field trips like what you're describing. I have a vivid memory of Jon Hassler visiting my sixth grade class to talk about his YA book, "Four Miles to Pinecone" partly because it was one of my favorite books, but also because my mom was the one who arranged it through his publisher.
When I was growing up in Illinois and Gwendolyn Brooks was our state poet laureate I think she tried to visit just about every school in the state, and when she came to my grade school it was like the arrival of a visiting dignitary. I remember how we all wrote poems in advance and they were posted on the hallway walls for her to see.
I have no idea if this kind of thing still happens in schools, does it happen?
A decade ago I proposed only partially tongue in cheek that the AWP conference cancel a day of panels and instead endeavor to put a writer in every classroom of the city of Chicago for a day. I still think it's a good idea. https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/education-oronte-churm/which-i-complain-about-awp-conference
I've no idea if it still happens in schools, I think maybe. I hope so.
wow amazing article. Beautiful word and even a more fascinating choice of topic. Who we all are going to be but most importantly what are the children of today and tomorrow are going to be. You are a champ and my hero for this one. John a tip for a friend of a friend. Shhhhhhhh its an open secret.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YykjpeuMNEk
Some one from US and even capturing so beautifully . Its a Cold Play song the Weekend. Its a story of children primarily. They are the angels established by great greek and roman painters. Why because what all children see is just a world that is so beautiful that only our childhood rememebr. The colors the magic of childhood. If a child takes that beauty with him or her to adult hood he and she would just change the world and some fine day even the universe.
Who ever is the director of this video exactly knows what you and I and every person with a heart is talking about. And hatts off to write this beautiful article. Note the colors in the video and its is Indian slums. Its magic happening there. That is how beautiful the world is for every child. Kindly write something about the children of Gaza too. No Child should be left behind as a friend would always like to share most beautiful world for the other friend. without sharing with each other the beauty of the world, it would always seem meaningless. Thank you for sharing your article and the video of the song. Here I cant watch the video and share it with you for free. for infinite times I like to. What a world and what an amazing times. Again Thank you America for making my life so beautiful while I sitting at home in Lahore, Pakistan.
This article beautifully captures the essence of curiosity and wonderment about the potential trajectories of children's lives based on their diverse reactions to a musical performance. By selecting children based on their reactions to the performance, the experiment aims to explore the varied paths individuals may take in life. It's a refreshing perspective that challenges traditional notions of success and highlights the importance of embracing the unique qualities and behaviors of each child.
Explore captivating Contemporary, Romance, Thriller & Suspense, Science Fiction, Horror, and more stories on my Substack for FREE at https://jonahtown.substack.com
Well said, regarding public schools. We need more freedom for kids and it seems less and less, especially with the fear-mongering about "learning loss." Kids need so much more freedom than we are giving them, in school and out of it.
What a lovely read this week. As the child of a musician and NY theater stage manager (my mom in the 1950s which is a whole other story), I think I grew up seeing musicians and actors respond to music and words they were performing or watching in much the same way. Perhaps we are lucky that some people don't learn those lessons about limiting our responses to what we see, read, watch, and hear. I want to sit down with them and talk about that experience and to connect what I saw in the visual responses to what they say.
Thanks for such an inspiring post. I really connected to the idea of how different we all are, and how all of us have so much potential to contribute from those differences. The kids' reactions in the video, their non-reactions, anxiety, intensity, exhaustion, trances, boredom, fidgeting, participation, and group collective articulate all of those differences.
While watching them, looking for who would connect to the music, the aspirational wish to "Trip the light fantastic" came to mind. My cousin Emily, not as studious as the standard would dictate, could do that... not just when she was touring the country in her point shoes, but watching her in the kitchen, with the radio on, eyes closed, nothing else in the world but Em, the music, her heart, and her movement. She, for sure, trips that light!
I've learned to forgive myself for not being the student I thought I could, or should have been; while also realizing my own abilities to hyper-focus, to connect disparate dots, to innovate, and uniquely solve problems. When I'm in that zone, I can connect the dots disparate!
So did anyone in the video react inappropriately? Some didn't get enough sleep. Another maybe listens to hip-hop, plays sports, reads books... If you believe that nurturing all of our differences results in tripping the light of humanity., no one in that room was right or wrong. Everyone was fantastic!
I love your idea of actually starting from scratch and rewriting as a method of revising. Reading your newsletter over the last few years has made me realize that I never learned to write, and in particular never learned to revise. (I placed out of the writing requirement in college, for one thing.) I wish I had had someone who taught me how to make my writing better. I'm picking up a few tips from you, which I appreciate!
Thanks for the mention of Disillusioned. Like you, I grew up in the Chicago suburbs and am only now in my 40s starting to figure out why the suburbs are far more problematic then I ever realized at the time. This looks like a really interesting book that may help me think this through a little more.
This post reminded me of a book I've been reading to my kids recently by Mo Willems titled "Because". It's the story of a young girl who happened by chance to find herself in a seat experiencing the magic of music and how that experience moved her deeply such that she became a conductor. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1368019013
The book is beautifully written (as are most by Willems). It also deeply connects to my own hopes for my students and the influence that I hope I will have on them as an educator. What a privilege to be part of even one step of their "because" story.
Might be a bit out of your normal repertoire, but I'd recommend that you to give it a look! Will almost certainly be the quickest and most delightful read of your week.
I will throw in a curmudgeonly take.
I don’t give much thought to what one song does to a group of kids - I think their development and success and growth is very much a slog, wouldn’t even think to spend much time on one reaction to one experience. Their journey has so many different facets and challenges and signposts that the notion of this post doesn’t even register with me.
By the way - this is one great experience for them, hopefully one of many where interesting music is a part of their education and daily lives.
I won't make any claims to any kind of potential validity to my proposed documentary. It's a thought experiment mostly reflecting on the incredible variety of responses and behaviors on display in the video. Where I'll disagree is the suggestion that one experience couldn't have an outsized impact on one's future. My Substack avatar is a picture of me from 3rd grade when Mrs. Goldman has us write instructions for a PB&J sandwich and I had a literal epiphany about how writing works in the world, an insight that I believe as an inciting moment in terms of the trajectory that resulted in me becoming a writer. I described its importance in this piece: https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/just-visiting/kill-5-paragraph-essay
Obviously a bunch of other stuff had to happen to (the other signposts), but those things never would've happened without the first thing.
I'm curious about your choice of the word "slog" to describe success/growth, a word with negative connotations around unrewarding or boring work. Is your view that development is inevitably coupled with slogging way through the unpleasant or boring stuff, or am I reading too much into a word?
Thanks for the response to my cranky comment.
I am looking at it from the perspective of what it takes for kids to be successful, etc., and that so much needs to go into that - whether as a parent or an education system - and that it often doesn’t work out or doesn’t work very well. (Pessimism much?) Just shows you how someone can take a fun and interesting experience/discussion and sap the joy out of it - you are welcome.
I will completely agree with your “one experience can make a big difference” thought. It can, but maybe not everyone has that experience.
I guess bottom line I am a rainer on parades and in this case think about the kids in an assembly or classroom and all the tough things they will face. Shouldn’t have said anything! But thanks for engaging.
No apologies necessary, this is fantastic! This is the kind of response that helps me think through my own thinking.
I tend to agree about the various components that it feels like have to come together to put students on a good trajectory. If you think about all the things that can happen to cause a derailment, any positive outcome can begin to seem sort of miraculous.
One of the things I've been really obsessing about is what "success" looks like in these contexts, and what we mean by saying we want kids to be successful. I think that aperture in school contexts has become far too narrow which is making kids hate school. Like a big success in school would be figuring out what you want to do in your life going forward, maybe to forever, but for at least the next few years. I don't know if school is particularly successful at that.
It gets me to thinking about how schools could make sure every student has at least a shot at one of those experiences. I don't really have a great answer for that, maybe because it's a moving target.
Interesting point. I digress, but there seems to be more effort these days in supporting “workforce” type career programs starting in middle school and continuing through HS. One thing that’s clear if you’re a parent or involved in education is - even at the college level - career support is very haphazard. Going to college is supported, but a career path from college or directly from HS is often anything but clear. I get that “learning for its own sake” has value, but there are lots of kids who would benefit from better career guidance.
I think career guidance is always going to be hard because of the shifting nature of work and careers. For a fair bit "learn to code" was a sort of magic saying that was supposed to lead to secure employment, but technological change has made coding - particularly low level coding - increasingly vulnerable. I'm a believer in learning for its own sake, but I actually think most learning for its own sake also has the potential to have utility in terms of future trajectories. This afternoon I've been working on a chapter in my next book about how my three English degrees well-prepared me for a career in market research, an industry I didn't really know existed until I started working in it.
Where my education fell short was not in what I learned, but in making me aware of how what I was learning had genuine use in the world beyond school. Because I could write, I was a good thinker, and thinking had use. I think it will continue to have use - at least I hope so - but to your point, I think we need to be more intentional about showing students how thinking is valuable as a skill and how it applies to different career paths. After that, I think students need help knowing what the possibilities are and then trying to fit the path to their interests and personalities. I had students majoring in business and information sciences who had chosen it because it was a "good" major, but who also said the idea of spending the day at a desk sounded like torture. Even if they earned a valuable credential, it wasn't going to be valuable to them.
It brings me back to my thinking about the varieties of behavior on display in that video. The best paths for those kids will (and should) vary widely. How do we give them the support they need to identify and then walk those paths? I think schools are not great at that.