Bus 10...er 4, Music Lesson

It being Christmas, I figured it was time for us to give all of our readers a very special gift…two blogs from me in one day! This first one will be a follow up to the assignment I gave the kids on my school bus. As we had previously been discussing music in our blog series, I had mentioned that I was giving the kids on my bus the assignment of telling me why they liked music, what their favorite music was and what they liked to do while listening to music.

I didn’t get as many written responses as I was hoping for, but the fact that some of the kids actually went home and spent some time in thought about music, and what they enjoyed about it was fantastic! It also sparked a lot of conversation on the bus about music throughout the last couple of weeks before Christmas break.

For the most part the main theme that kept coming up was that they really enjoyed singing and dancing to it, both things we strongly encourage on our bus as long as everyone remains in their seats! Some of the kids may not always enjoy the singing but those kids generally come up to the front of the bus and shoot the breeze with their driver. We still talk about music a lot, but we also talk about books, and sports and the big issues as well.

The week after Nelson Mandela passed away we discussed his accomplishments quite a bit. I was actually pretty surprised to hear that they had not been talking about this great man during school so I figured I’d give the kids the basics about him, and treat them to a week’s worth of life lessons from the man who helped to end apartheid in South Africa.

We also spent a day discussing names. I spoke with the kids about how everyone should find out where their name comes from. Sometimes a name is just something that a parent liked at the time, such as “Apple.” But more than likely there is more meaning behind their name than the fact that it was just their parent’s favorite fruit or computer product… My parents named me Jason after “Jason and the Golden Fleece.” After my mom passed away I found another little card that had my name on it saying that the meaning was “healer.” We also discussed what your name would have been if you would have been the opposite gender that you are…that got a few laughs out of the bus!

We talk about a lot of stuff on our bus, but I think the most important thing is that we talk. I want the kids to know that no matter what happens throughout the rest of their day that they have someone on their way to and from school that generally cares about them and wants them to be the fantastic people I know they all can be. The kids on my bus are pretty awesome kids. They all have a very unique personality which I really enjoy and the greatest thing about them is that they’re kids, that sing, dance, read, discuss what’s going on in their lives, and I think are learning that the other kids they spend the bus ride with will end up being some of their best friends. It’s pretty cool how a bus with various ages of kids can end up being like a little family.

So the music theme was more than anything a way to get the kids discussing things, not just on our bus but at home as well. Hopefully this little exercise had the kids headed home to tell their parents why they liked music so much, or asking about Nelson Mandela, or even discussing why they were named what they are named. SoulPancake is an organization that promotes everyone to ask the big questions during this thing we call life; my bus tries to do that every day! If there are parents or teachers reading this blog, may I suggest that you go to YouTube and check out some of the “Kid President” videos? I would be very surprised if you didn’t all enjoy them and find that we all have a lot that we can learn from this generation that so many people seem worried about! It may even give you some more to discuss at home or in the class room!

 

 

Here are the responses I received from the music assignment:

“My favorite song is Wrecking Ball. I like it because I have fun doing programs with it.”

“Music I Like: Taylor Swift, Maroon 5, Cary Rae Jepson”

“I like music because it rocks and it’s fun to sing along with friends…and it is awesome!”

“I like music because it is awesome!”

“I like music because it is nice to listen.”

And simply…

“Taylor Swift.”

 

Here we are at Banana Daiquiris and Life Lessons trying to find the inner deeper meaning to why we all enjoy music so much and after all of our blogs, is there really a better answer than, “I like music because it is awesome?!” Sometimes there doesn’t need to be a deeper reason, sometimes we just like something because we do. I like the kids on my bus; they’re pretty awesome if you ask me.