Saving Our Kids

If you want to see and hear something remarkable, follow the link to the 5th grade choir at PS 22 (Public School 22) in Staten Island, New York. To hear these kids sing is amazing. I would never have thought a group of fifth graders could sing like that. Many of these urban kids have led tough lives. Three quarters of them have family incomes low enough to qualify for the free lunch program.

There was a time when I thought stuff like music, art, maybe even athletics really, was "fluff," not necessarily essential to the academic milieu. I think a lot of people feel that way today. Things like art, music and shop are usually the first things to go when budgets get tight, as they seem to more and more as the public commitment to education ebbs and the preoccupation with taxes continues.

Boy, have I done a 180 on that. Look at these kids. Their teacher, Gregg Breinberg, feels it's a shame that many will go from his school to middle schools where choral music has been axed. He says he is convinced that music has saved a lot of young peoples' lives. I completely agree. Here's why.

Most young people, particularly from tough environments, don't go to school or stay in school for the academics. They need to connect with something. They make friends or they discover an interest. The interest is something they enjoy. It might be a sport, computers, the band, art, drama, cosmetology, ceramics, home ec or working on cars. For some it can lead to a career; for most not. But what it does is give the kid a reason to want to come to school.

I can't begin to list the number of students I've had over the past eleven years at community college who work hard enough to pass twelve units a semester so they can stay eligible to play softball, football, soccer, basketball, or one of our other sports. Along the way a lot of them get a degree or a certificate that opens the door to a successful life. You have to meet young people's personal needs to have some fun in a wholesome and productive way if you don't want to lose them. Our society is losing far too many of them. When we continually slash the activities that keep them connected to school and each other in a positive vein we do not save money. We squander it, for dropouts and gang members cost society enormous sums in lost productivity and the legal system.

It's crucial to support the arts, sports, and school-based activities. It's one of the best ways to save America's kids.

Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie

Pete Seeger finally got the last word today. The 89-year-old folk singer, blackballed in the 1950s and 1960s for his populist lyrics, took the stage with Bruce Springsteen in front of the Lincoln Memorial with the Obama family and several hundred thousand in attendance and proceeded to lead them all in a round of "This Land Is Your Land" using Woody Guthrie's original lyrics. For a fellow who rode the rails with Guthrie during the Great Depression the irony could not have been sweeter. The old guy smiled from ear to ear.

Here are the full lyrics.

This Land Is Your Land
Words and Music by Woody Guthrie

Chorus:
This land is your land, this land is my land
From California to the New York Island
From the redwood forest, to the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for you and me

As I was walking a ribbon of highway
I saw above me an endless skyway
I saw below me a golden valley
This land was made for you and me

Chorus

I've roamed and rambled and I've followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts
And all around me a voice was sounding
This land was made for you and me

Chorus

The sun comes shining as I was strolling
The wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling
The fog was lifting a voice come chanting
This land was made for you and me

Chorus

As I was walkin'- I saw a sign there
And the sign said - no tress passin'
But on the other side ... it didn't say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!

Chorus

In the squares of the city - In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office - I see my people
And some are grumblin' and some are wonderin'
If this land's still made for you and me.

Chorus (2x)