Kristin Kusche: Let music cast its wonderful spell

"Ah, music. A magic beyond all we do here!" -- ALBUS DUMBLEDORE

Commentary

In "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," J.K. Rowling admits that even the magic of wizards cannot compete with the powers of music.

While our schools might not teach "potions" or "defense against the dark arts," they do teach music -- at least for now. March is "Music in Our Schools" month.

This month, I ask Minnesotans to think about passion.

In 2010, the national average SAT score was 1509. The highest possible score one can achieve on the SAT is 2400.

In 2010, the average SAT score of the Texas All-State String Orchestra was 2077. That is a 568-point difference.

While the all-state students may have scored higher, none of them auditioned for those ensembles to improve their SAT scores. Those students are there because they get something much more out of music: a chance to be passionate about something.

There are hundreds of similar statistics that support music education and its enhancement of student achievement, but that's not what music education is all about.

Its goal is to instill passion into the hearts and souls of the young people of the world. Music education shouldn't exist as a support system for other subjects -- it should exist for the sake of music.

Music makes everyone feel something. When you need to relax, when you exercise, when you take the bus to work -- you probably tune in to some music.

Most of us walk around with iPods and constantly have a soundtrack to our lives. You can carry all of the Beethoven symphonies in your pocket on the same playlist as Lady Gaga's latest single.

That is incredible! When you select which song you want your iPod to play, you're choosing something that matches or changes your mood.

You pick it because you get something out of it that you can't get anywhere else. Music is the picture and the feeling and the idea that cannot be expressed in the words of any language or the colors of any artist.

That is why we create it.

During my senior year of high school, our band was joined by a tuba-playing foreign exchange student from Germany. I was in the band room when the director met him for the first time.

The director got out a tuba and asked the boy to play a concert B-flat scale. The boy looked confused -- he didn't understand what that meant.

The band director then grabbed a music book and pointed to a passage. The boy played the music effortlessly.

I was floored at the revelation of how universal music really is. It is the only subject in which people from all cultures and languages can come together and perform on the spot and truly understand one another.

While it is important that our students excel in math, science and language arts, we need to make sure there is room in their day to truly feel and express something deeper.

Every child deserves the opportunity to be passionate. Music connects to us on a level that other subjects will never reach.

This month, talk to a child in music. Remember what it was like to sing in a choir concert or to make a sound on your instrument for the first time.

If you have a small child in your home, sing to him or her at bedtime this month. Attend a concert in your school district.

Music is important. What is life without passion and beauty?

We are all passionate about something. While we can't teach our children how to make feathers levitate with the flick of a wand or to play Quidditch riding on the new Nimbus 2000, music is the one magic we can teach them in schools.

Whether or not you were in band, choir or orchestra as a child, music is and always will be a part of your life. Shouldn't your children have music in their lives, too?

Kristin Kusche, Minneapolis, is a band teacher.