March is Music in our Schools Month® and 2025 marks the 40th anniversary of the designation. New Carmi-White County Unit 5 Pre-k through 5th Grade Music Teacher Presley Hillyard is here for it. The Streator, IL native explains a bit more on the origin.
National Association for Music Education is a group of music educators all across America. It’s a resource for teachers providing professional development and anything a music educator might need. It’s been a great resource for me as a new teacher. Music in our Schools Month ® actually started in 1973 in New York. It didn’t become a national month until 1985 but I’m glad it is.
Studies have proven that music education pays off for young, learning minds. Hillyard embraces that and reinforces it with her students on a regular basis.
I always tell my kids that even though you might not become a musician, I still feel like the arts and music specifically are very important for all of them. Even though it’s not a core class, it’s kind of like the stretch before doing the math and science. It works the whole brain to kind of help get them ready for all that. When they have music once or twice a week, I feel like they’re just more ready for math and science and things that are thrown at them every single day.
To celebrate Music in our Schools Month®, Hillyard has activities scheduled for students that range from the simple to interactive endeavors that will expose them to music they may never otherwise hear.
Just this week, the kids at Jefferson did a ‘I love music because’ and some of my favorite ones are because I like country music or I like playing piano. And then we’re doing Sousa March Mania. [John Philip Sousa] was a composer known primarily for his American military marches so the Marine Corps put this on. They put 32 songs/marches on a bracket like March Madness. We listen and we vote and then we wait for the national vote to see who won. We’re about a quarter of the way there. They’re enjoying it and it lets them hear a lot of stuff that they aren’t used to hearing.
So what can you do at home to celebrate? A couple things.
Well they can go to my facebook page, I created one ‘Mrs. Hillyard’s Music Class’ which is very new. We’re also participating in Sousa March Mania on that page. Also, if they see something their child is truly enjoying, send an email to me, the principals, the administration…let them know what she’s doing is awesome…Ms. Sinclair is doing awesome stuff or any of our fine arts people because sometimes it goes by the wayside. If they can hear what we’re doing is important, then they know it’s important to have in schools. There’s also some legislation that’s changing that can affect the arts especially funding. Right now there’s one potentially changing whether marching band can be considered a sport or not and whether students can be exempt from P.E. being in marching band. So I think it’s important to pay attention to legislation that’s changing especially if your child is truly involved in music, theater, art and know where the funding comes from. So take a look at Title I, Title II, Title 4…those are three in our state that directly fund the arts. So if they see something change, say something to local and state representatives.
You can find Hillyard’s facebook page at following link: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61572773790788
Learn more about the National Association for Music Education and Music in our Schools Month® at https://nafme.org/ and https://nafme.org/advocacy/music-in-our-schools-month/.
