Pre-K? Do you know the program “Music Together”? My daughter used to teach that when her own kids were little.
Her biggest problem is the Middle Schoolers. They think they know everything, and they all want to be on American Idol. So, they don’t want to put the work in to learn Music Theory (required at that age). They just want to perform. And they can’t believe that my daughter would dare to give them a bad grade, if they don’t turn in their homework. Bad grade in MUSIC? Unheard of, in their minds.
Last year they did a jazz unit in 8th grade, and they had to write an essay on 3 kinds of music. One of her boys wrote that “Jazz is a type of music invented by slaves while picking cotton in the fields outside of Chicago in the 1920s and 1930s.”
We laughed and laughed, but he got a better grade than those who copied directly from Wikipedia without attribution!
At that middle school age she’s lucky to get them to put their names on their papers and to turn them in. Yet, at the end of the year last year (after their closing program) parents came forward and said, “I see what you are doing now, and I understand the progression of the music program from K-8.”
Her 8th grade boys brought down the house with their version (much cleaned up) of a Contemporary Rock song. They wrote their own words and devised their own choreography. They outshone (shined?) the girls as the last act of the spring program.
Who knew you could grow cotton in Chicago?