Music of the Heart
Movie Review by:Anne Schmitt, American University

Reflection: The East Harlem School where Roberta Guaspari teaches has children of many ethnic/racial backgrounds: African American, Hispanic, Asian, and white. The school's tenured music teacher‹who is a white male--believes it is impossible to teach this particular ethnic/racial mix the violin. He uses stereotyping when he decides up front that the students' attention spans arenıt long enough to learn to play the violin. He teaches with low expectations when we see him in the scene where he is sitting at his desk, yelling out notes for the students to play on their recorders. In contrast, Roberta Guaspari believes in the students and refuses to apply ethnic or racial stereotyping to them. She doesnıt let the children stereotype themselves either. When an African American boy says he wants out of the class because "violins are for wimps," she tells him he canıt leave because that's not a good enough reason. Roberta has high expectations and is even accused‹by a white parent‹of being too harsh with the children. At times she has to temper this strictness when confronted with the real-life problems the kids have: the girl who forgets her violin because sheıs shuttled between divorced parents, the boy with asthma, or the girl whose grandmother was held up and killed. The children achieve because of her persistence, love, and faith in them.

The families in the school seem to be mainly from a low socioeconomic background. If Roberta had not shown up with fifty violins, it would have been difficult to get an instrumental music program off the ground in a school like this. In wealthier schools, the parents are able to buy or rent instruments for their children. Ultimately, when Robertaıs funding is cut, they go outside the neighborhood and the school system for money. By getting media attention and having contacts in the right places, they are able to get celebrity musicians to help raise enough money to fund the program through a Carnegie Hall benefit.

The lives of Guadalupe and Naeem Adisa would have been very different had they not been in Roberta's violin class. Guadalupe had little self-confidence, largely due to her physical disability which requires her to wear a leg brace. She tells Roberta that she'll "always be weaker." Roberta tells her this isn't true and gives the violinist Itzhak Perlman as an example of someone who has become a world-famous violinist and overcome his physical disability. Ten years later we see Guadalupe as an accomplished violinist who has become successful because of Robertaıs program. The same is true of Naeem Adisa. Initially his mother pulls him out of violin classes, because she thinks violin is only white people's music. Roberta tells her that music crosses all racial boundaries and that she (his mother) should see how much he loves to play the violin. Eventually, the mother realizes that she can't deprive her son of his passion and allows him to return to Roberta's class. We see him ten years later with Guadalupe, an accomplished musician. The implication is that music provided these children with a future.

I did not have separate music or art education in my elementary school. The classroom teachers did arts and crafts projects with us occasionally and sang with us a few times a week. I particularly enjoyed my art classes in junior high. I discovered in ninth grade that I had a talent for drawing portraits and by the end of the year, art was my favorite subject. This new-found ability gave me greater social self-confidence, because my friends and students I didnıt know, admired my work. These feelings parallel the feelings of Roberta's accomplished young violinists in the movie. I moved to a new school system for high school, where I did not have room in my schedule for art classes. In retrospect, I think it's too bad that I didnıt find the room in high school and waited until college to pursue more art. Unlike team sports, art is something you can do into old age. Last June when I was in Paris with my sister, who is a painting and drawing professor, I enjoyed going sketching with her, as well as drawing the figure at a Paris studio. It would be a shame if children werenıt exposed to art and music education at a young age, since they can enjoy art and music into their old age.

I think that extracurricular athletics are given priority in school budgets because they bring glory to the individual schools. School spirit revolves around athletics not art and music in most schools. Colleges seek out star athletes with athletic scholarships. However, many students don't make these teams or receive the scholarships. They should have other alternatives to sports.

Follow-Up Activity: The School Board

New York Public Schools

I am writing in support of Roberta Guaspari and her East Harlem Violin Program. She arrived at East Harlem Elementary ten years ago with fifty violins and a passion for teaching children. Although most teachers were doubtful, the principal gave her a chance to work with these children. Because of her high expectations of what they could learn and her persistence, children have emerged from her program as accomplished musicians with a desire to succeed in the world. These children come from diverse backgrounds, children with disabilities, children of divorce, children from poverty. Children who can't find a niche in afterschool sports, have found themselves in her program. Her program cuts through racial stereotypes. Boys who at first think itıs "not cool" to be a classical musician, discover new talents and acquire the self-confidence to stand up to their peers to defend their new interests. By now the program has expanded from one to three schools. It is so popular that the schools hold a lottery to pick the class. Unlike their counterparts in wealthy suburban schools, these families cannot raise the money to fund Mr. Guaspariıs position.

Due to the recent emphasis on test score performance and core requirements in the schools, arts education has suffered many cutbacks in recent years. However, the School Board needs to recognize that a program such as Ms. Guaspari's reaches children who otherwise do not excel in these core subjects. We must keep in mind that other types of intelligence‹musical ability, for example‹are just as valuable as language and math abilities. We cannot give up on these children, but must allow them to excel where they can. In looking at the entire school budget, this program costs only a fraction of a percent.

Before moving to New York, my children attended a public school in Chevy Chase, Maryland with a renowned children's chorus. The parents had to petition the School Superintendent to keep our music teacher, Joan Gregoryk, full-time, so she could continue teach the chorus. Because of this extra little bit of funding and the extraordinary amount of work and dedication on the part of Joan Gregoryk, this public school chorus achieved national status. They sang for President Clintonıs Inauguration at the Lincoln Memorial. They participated in a music exchange with a Moscow music school, in which fifty American children had the experience of living with Russian families for a week and seventy Russian children stayed with Chevy Chase families the next year. They performed at the United Nations, the Kennedy Center, and ultimately at Carnegie Hall in a performance of the "Childrenıs Crusade, " the largest piece of music ever composed for a childrenıs chorus. Under the direction of Leonard Slatkin, they learned the entire score in French (with the help of parent tutors), and performed the work three nights at the Kennedy Center and one night at Carnegie Hall. My own two daughters had the privilege of singing in this public school chorus. Although they are not pursuing music careers, their lives are changed forever as a result of these fantastic experiences.

In conclusion, we need more music teachers like Roberta Guaspari and Joan Gregoryk. When we are lucky enough to have a few like them, we should not cut their funding. Many childrenıs lives have been transformed by these educators who have helped them find their niche in life or helped their overall self-confidence. Please reconsider funding Roberta Guaspariıs position.

Sincerely,

Anne B. Schmitt