Emily M. Neuberger

Brookline, MA has a population of about 60,000 people. This Boston suburb is very dense, hosting nearly 9,000 people per square mile. The median income for a family was about $93,000 according to the 2010 census. Five percent of children under the age of 18 live below the poverty line. These statistics paint the picture of a much more affluent community than the city of Boston. Brookline Public Schools has an outstanding reputation of rigorous academic training, which makes the area very attractive to families. Brookline has a large Jewish population (estimated at over 35%), owing in part to a large number of Russian and Israeli immigrants.

           

The Heath School is K-8 (and Pre-K) and serves some of the wealthiest members of the Brookline community in the Chestnut Hill neighborhoods. The school hosts an incredibly religiously and ethnically diverse population of 444 students. Practicing Jews, Muslims, Christians, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and others coexist beautifully within and without the walls of Heath School. There is at least one child in each class who is bilingual, if not trilingual.  Heath’s core values are: build community, communicate respect, work hard and strive for excellence. Most students are about a grade level ahead academically of their peers in other districts. The teachers at Heath are not worried about their students passing the MCAS tests, they are worried about them scoring in the top five percent in the state, and for the last several years, this has been the case.

 

Mrs. Huntley, my host teacher, takes a rather balanced approach to music education in her classroom. The students start reading music notation both melodically and rhythmically as early as in second grade and continue through each grade up until and including the musical ensembles that the students participate in from sixth to eighth grade. Brookline uses the Takidimi rhythmic system throughout the district. A lot of emphasis is put on singing in the first and second grades as well as listening and playing instruments. The last two skills are emphasized more frequently as the students grow older. The third graders play recorder and all grade levels play Orff instruments more as they age. There are several composition projects spread throughout Mrs. Huntley’s curriculum. She encourages the students to find their own musical voice and insists that they are capable of composing too.

 

The Brookline K-8 Performing Arts department has seen a lot of upheaval in the past several years.  Their department head left suddenly in the middle of cuts last spring and an interim coordinator stepped in this year.  He was recently hired as the official K-12 Performing Arts Coordinator and is currently taking stock of the department.  In the foreseeable future, the K-8 Brookline music department will likely see the implementation of assessments for K-5 students and more focus on the creative skills that students at all levels of the curriculum should hone continuously in General Music and musical ensembles.