By GREGORY ZELLER //
One of Long Island’s most dynamic museums is partnering with some of rock ‘n’ roll’s biggest names to promote music education throughout this region and beyond.
The Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame is trumpeting partnership with New York City-based TeachRock, which was launched in 2002 by legendary rocker Steven Van Zandt – and a Founders Board including Bono, Bruce Springsteen and other names you know – to provide free, standards-aligned resources for less-fortunate K-12 music programs.
By jazzing up classrooms, TeachRoch aims to harmonize with evolving science, math and language-arts programs – and by aligning with TeachRock, the LIMEHOF figures to tune up its own scholastic outreach, according to Educational Programs Director Tom Needham.
“TeachRock aligns perfectly with LIMEHoF’s educational commitment to education and encouraging more music, arts and culture … in local school districts,” Needham said. “Our shared goal is to encourage more Long Island, Brooklyn and Queens school districts to adopt the TeachRock curriculum and lesson plans for the cultural enrichment of [their] students.”
The Stony Brook-based museum is planning a number of TeachRock-related efforts, including a monthly subscriber e-blast and a frequently updated webpage highlighting TeachRock events and lesson plans. Also in the works are TeachRock training sessions in the museum’s copious new meeting spaces and possible LIMEHOF field trips for regional schools participating in TeachRock programming.
History lessons: Music, past and present, should play a larger role in education, according to TeachRock.
These sorts of musical interludes are exactly what TeachRock was built for, according to Van Zandt, who’s banged with the E Street Band, consulted as Tony Soprano’s consiglieri and devoted himself to the idea that music can save the world.
“We know that if you want a kid to succeed, you don’t tell her to take her earbuds out,” Van Zandt said in a statement. “You ask her what she’s listening to, and then you trace it back together.
“Kids come to us with the natural gift of curiosity, and the TeachRock curriculum helps teachers meet them there on the way to meaningful learning.”
TeachRock Executive Director Bill Carbone said engaging with institutions like the LIMEHOF is the best way for the nonprofit 501(c)3 organization to spread the musical message to multiple school districts, especially those where enthusiasm for traditional education has hit a sour note.
“We hear so much about declining participation and engagement, and how that results in lower math and reading scores,” Carbone said. “But nearly everywhere a TeachRock class is implemented, we see the opposite – engagement and grades are rising and often the school ends up adding additional TeachRock courses to meet student demand.
“It’s a paradigm shift,” the executive director added. “Students aren’t cutting class – they’re clamoring to get in.”
