Math and Music: The Power of Music in the Classroom
Everyone knows how powerful music can be. It inspires, sparks emotions and brings back memories. Inside the classroom music can be as part of a powerful learning process. Though there are obvious connections with music and math, songs can be deliberately used in the classroom to shape learning. Inside a typical 'old school' class students are in an environment that can generously be called "uncomfortable". They sit in desks that have hard seats and little back support. With one window to allow natural light in, the rest of the class is often filled with artificial light that is bright and harsh accompanied by that annoying hum of electricity. The room itself is nothing more than a giant box with a door and window. It's almost as if classroom were designed as a place to train young minds to be good factory workers. John Taylor Gatto explains this very well in his book "The Underground History of American Education". Having this type of envir...