Little Steven Van Zandt’s TeachRock.Org is bringing a teacher training workshop to The Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame on Sunday October 15th, 2023. We caught up with Steven via Zoom to discuss the organization. Steven refers to TeachRock.org as “one of my favorite things.” We spoke about how although Steven is an educated man, he wasn’t a good student as a young man. His education was more something that came from the streets. He spoke about being a part of music history or observing it up close. He mentioned jokingly, how he is trying to make up for being a terrible student back in the day by working with TeachRock.org today.
Steven said that things got started when the Music Teachers of America contacted a friend of his. They wanted to point out that arts and music education was getting cut from many public schools. They wanted Steven to go to Washington D.C. to see what he could do. Steven met with Ted Kennedy and Mitch McConnell to discuss this. There didn’t appear to be anything that they could do to help. Steven went back to the teachers and told them they needed to find another way. That’s when he shared his idea of doing a music history curriculum. This plan would include all students and not just musicians. The program includes over 200 lessons. This program integrates arts into the schools. The idea is to take STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) and change it to STEAM, by adding Arts. There were 3 goals as part of TeachRock.org. Keep the arts as part of the DNA of education, come up with a new methodology for this generation and to increase the graduation rate. He said that close to 50% of students in poorer neighborhoods are dropping out. Statistics show that if a student likes a single class or a single teacher they will stay in school.
Teachers are fans of the program. There are more than 60,000 teachers who are currently participating, and they are expanding all the time. They feel it is more important to “Teach kids how to think, rather than what to think.” These lessons are offered to all the schools for free. That brought us into talking about where the funding comes from. Steven said it is all through private donations. Steven also added that they do a lot of fundraising on The E Street Band tours. The lessons are digital which leaves them the ability to quickly make changes. They get a lot of feedback from the teachers which helps the program develop. They also have a roster of artists who help with the program. Part of this is a celebration of the 50th anniversary of Hip Hop.
This is where we dug in about the event happening at The Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame on Sunday October 15th, 2023. Steven spoke about how they include all genres of music. He mentioned how they asked the students what they want to learn about. Then they make that connection back to history. Steven said they need to “Teach in the present tense.” The students will be interested in the connections, which lead to conversation not just about music history but about American history. Steven added “Let’s use the gifts that they come with.” He also mentioned that “Teachers are on the front lines of the war against ignorance.”