The Experience of Sound

I grew up just down the road from my elementary school, in a small historic neighborhood with a lovely park across the street.  This neighborhood became the image of my childhood but slowly that's been changing. My elementary school used to be one of the best in the city, everyone wanted to go there. We had kids who went onto middle school, high school, and eventually even places like Harvard and Yale. But now I walk the halls and I don't see the excellence that we used to have. I don't see the pride. I don't see the happiness. I don't see the parent volunteers like I used to. I see a lot of hurt. I see a lot of misbehaving and confusion. I overhear students telling my father (who is a teacher) that they feel ashamed when they don't do well in school, or that their parents will be angry with them. I see students putting themselves down because they were shuffled into a "bad" class, one of a lower level due to their EOG scores. I hear stories of children's home life, and I see them too. Many of the elementary students now live in my neighborhood and I see the lives they are living. I see the poverty, I see the abuse, I see the messed up marriages and faulted families. And most of all, I know the way these things have opened up my own eyes to see beyond my little life.
Now don't get me wrong, we still have amazing families and we still have happy students, but the broken is so evident within our school. A majority of the students don't come from the most ideal living circumstances and it hurts me. I want to take every child and just tell them how much they are loved and how smart they are. I want to tell them that their circumstances don't define who they are, that they're better than that. But of course, that's not a volunteer's place.
I volunteer at my old elementary school and much like my father, I strive to allow children to see beyond the four walls of the classroom. Although we can't physically help the child escape, but we can provide other opportunities to help that child mentally escape, at least for a little while.
My dad works with small groups in the 4th and 5th grade. He pulls these groups out and does little projects with them, often involving history or culture. There was a day last year when my dad assigned each of the student's a famous piece of architecture to write a paper about. A little boy had the London Tower Bridge and just pulled a picture up on google of it. He immediately called my dad over, gasping for air. When my dad reached him, the little boy had started crying and said, "Mr. Lawrence, that's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."
It's moments like that one that breaks my heart. To know that a child has never seen something that beautiful in person. To know he didn't have the experiences that I had growing up. To know that he might not have the family that educates him on these things. There is no diagnosis and it's not my job to know what his personal problem is or even how to fix, but it is my job to provide these children opportunities out, to expand their horizons, to make them see that there's more to this life than little Asheboro, North Carolina.
Music is the language of the soul, the only language that can be understood by anyone. Music is what puts emotion into expression and allows true release of one's feelings. My elementary school was at one time an arts based school but much like most schools in the United States, the arts are being cut from curriculum. Once upon a time, we had full time staff for drama, music, art, gym, and even dance. Now, we have something called "art on a cart" where the art teacher goes to the classrooms rather than having her own. Drama and dance have been completely cut from our school and other extra curricular activities have been cut down in time. It breaks my heart to see a set of student's lose the ability to express themselves through the arts.
And that's where I come in.
Every Christmas, spring, and summer break, I come home to my elementary school with my bassoon in hand, prepared to give a small lesson and music session to the children. I promise you, despite how awkward and loud the bassoon is, you would think these kid's just listened to a world-reknowned musician. Most of these children don't even know what an orchestra is, let alone a bassoon. The joy that a simple music experience brings to children will make you melt. Their faces bright with joy and their hands high in the air because they have so many questions about music.
"How do I join band?"
"How old is this music? What do you call this type of music?"
"How do you read music?"
"Is music fun?"
"How long did it take you to learn? I want to learn the drums and guitar!"
"That was just beautiful!" (this is always my favorite because I know my playing was far from beautiful.)
It makes you realize how blessed you are to have the opportunities that you do. It makes you appreciate the arts and music. It makes you appreciate life in general.
We don't always get the same experiences and it breaks my heart to no end to know that children are being deprived from something as simple as a classical piece of music. Their brains are full of rap and distasteful lyrics, and the simple sounds of Mozart captures them and transports them to a totally different place. The fascination with instruments, woodwind, brass, strings, percussion, it makes them curious, it makes them crave culture. And ultimately this is what I want them to understand, to know how big and beautiful this world is.  To appreciate the amounts of diversity and culture there is in the world. I want them to hear music and see art and find joy in dance or theater. I want them to know that their home life might not be forever. That their EOG scores will not define their entire school career. I want them to understand what it is to love life and to really live, and I mean really live. Life is far to short to allow our children to be separated from what makes it beautiful. In all seriousness, take a moment and really listen and look at what's around you. Is the world not just God's personal canvas? Does He not paint amazing and beautiful images and orchestrate lovely melodies around us daily? Please explain to me how we can allow our children to understand the world's own beauty if we keep taking the world away from them.