When I’m wandering the lonely supermarket, there’s always a song playing that doesn’t fit the mood at all. “Endless Love” while you’re choosing avocados. “I’m Still Standing” while you’re grabbing some chicken from the meat case. “Hey Ya” while you’re standing in the checkout line.

If you know the song that’s playing, you can’t help but sing along, even if you’ve never chosen to listen to it and never would. But whether I know a song or not, there’s another level that my brain engages without my conscious thought: figuring out the chords.

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Education, along with everything else, is in crisis in the United States. One of the central problems we’re going to be facing this fall is that, once again, working parents will be forced to find some way for school and work to coexist.

By no means do I believe that I can come up with a universal solution to the challenge of school closures. However, I do have some thoughts to contribute to the conversation; as usual, my approach to pedagogy is grounded in my long experience as a music teacher. What I learned in that context is surprisingly applicable here.

The question I’m pondering is this: Why shouldn’t a school-age child be able to do his own work independently while sitting side by side with a parent who is working?

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Glance at these letters for a moment.

IXW ZDA RSN TRV NCL

How much can you immediately recall? Ugh, my brain hurts just thinking about it.

Now try the same thing with this set of letters:

JFK USA FBI CIA NYC

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When I was fourteen or so, I really struggled to read music. 

I knew what the names of the lines and spaces were, but that was the extent of it. Every note had to be decoded, one at a time, in order for me to be able to play a piece.

I would still have to then practice it over and over for it to be smooth. That took a long time, and I would end up “re-decoding” notes multiple times in order to remember what I was doing.

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To a little kid, reading appears to be the act of passively looking at the page — or maybe turning pages and reciting words out loud as you make up your own story or recite one that has been read to you many times.

I used to “read” my dad’s car magazines by flipping through the pages one at a time (licking a finger on one hand and turning the page with the other), and I would tell the story of naughty Peter Rabbit and his quest to steal “cawwots” while using the picture book to guide my memory.

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