The Worst Thing You Could Do
I recently mentioned West Side Story, which led me to recall the first things I ever taught in what I called "The Music Room" . First, was that Frank Sinatra was the Chairman of the Board. To understand our modern time we need to recall that seminal moment where on one side of Pop culture you had The Rat Pack and on the other side was The Beatles & The Stones, etc. so, you would need to know about Frank. ( I would occasionally mention the other Frank, and even had a Mothers of Invention album placed high above the room in the back, by the door, until a little Kindergartener boy started crying about the album cover. Way too scary. It was hidden out of view and forgotten about until I heard some wimpering.
It was around 2000 that I had a class focused on West Side Story. Two things stand out from that experience. The first was that the children all giggled singing "I Feel Pretty". I had learned the lyric " pretty, witty, and bright and I pity any girl that isn't me tonight". At that time in the world we still played cassette tapes and I had inherited the movie soundtrack in the class room when I arrived as a neophyte music teacher.
Well, they shot this scene in the films during the day and altered the lyric accordingly to "...witty and gay and pity any girl that isn't me today." Much giggling ensued and I learned how pernicious the simple term "gay" had evolved in our society.
The second stand out was that I declined to teach "Officer Krumpke" but at the repeated
insistence of one boy gave him a copy of the sheet music. Uh, oh. Not good. The principal received a letter signed by a half dozen parents accusing me of reckless behavior rivaled only by Sacco and Vanzetti. From their point of view it was the worst thing you could do. The joke that came to mind were the inmates on death row discussing their crimes, when one guy admits that it all started with Sondheim, then onto Cole Porter and Goethe. (Goethe got me into trouble once, but that's another story.)
Well learning "West Side Story" isn't the worst thing you could do, the worst thing you could do is not teach students about the work of Leonard Bernstein and his musical masterpiece, West Side Story.
