How Music Came to the World

Amid presentations exploring the "promise of the future," students from Cypress Elementary School in Osceola County, Fla., shared their creative study and interpretation of the past--specifically the ancient Aztec folk tale, "How the Music Came to the World."

Before Monday's Closing General Session, more than 100 students ranging from age 5 to 11 performed the folk tale using music, dance, and drama.

The curriculum behind their performance supports the findings of our closing general session speaker and relates to other conference sessions on culture and the arts in education.

Directors Debbie Fahmie and Magdali Carrillo headed up the collaborative project that joined three Cypress Elementary groups, the Falcon's Forte Chorus and Orff Ensemble, the Backstage Drama Club, and the Coqui Dancers.

The performance was the culmination of a learning experience that began in October, when students began studying the ancient Aztecs as part of Hispanic Heritage Month. First, students read a book about the Aztec folk tale, then they learned to play authentic Aztec folk instruments. They also had to study the style of music and dance appropriate to the ancient Aztec culture. The performance combined chanting, acting, dancing, and playing musical instruments that included a rain stick, a conch shell, a jaw bone, and an ancient Aztec stone marimba.

The flavor of the past these students communicated so well depends on fulfilling the promise of the future by using power to ensure funding for the arts and fostering the creative passion these students demonstrated so clearly. Director Debbie Fahmie closed the performance with a parting thought along those lines: "We truly believe that through the arts, we can teach to the whole child."

• Fahmie's remark echoes the findings of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, our closing general session speaker.

• Other conference sessions demonstrated the power of the arts in education.

• Conference attendees from around the world shared how they teach about other cultures in their countries.

• Yasmeen Qadri showed educators the importance of encouraging sensitivity to differing religous expressions in the conference session "Muslims Are Americans, Too."

• Dennis Littky finds that the arts are often gateway subjects that lead students to deeper explorations of other subjects. Littky encourages educators to teach from the heart to develop students.