Rehashing from last year. Miss Girard was doing the RIGHT kind of teaching, and I didn’t appreciate it back then.
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Something reminded me of La Cucaracha, so I started singing it the way Miss Girard taught it in 6th grade.
La cucaracha, la cucaracha,
ya no puede caminar.
Porque no tiene, porque le falta,
Gasolina por su car.
Much later I learned the correct last line, but the bowdlerized version actually makes more sense.
Miss Girard was the itinerant music teacher for Manhattan elementary schools. She visited each 6th grade classroom on a loop, maybe every two weeks. She taught EVERYTHING by teaching music.
This is how education should work.
Math, history and languages are distasteful and unmemorable when taught in the usual theory-first way. They are easy to absorb when you don’t know you’re learning math, history and languages. Miss Girard taught history and geography with Erie Canal and Tenting Tonight. She gave us a taste of languages with La Cucaracha, O Tannenbaum, Frere Jacques and Adeste Fideles. She taught math with 4/4 and 3/4 and key signatures. Above all she taught teamwork and tolerance with rounds and three-part harmony.
Polistra's Mill 