author: Sharon Allen, October 3, 2008
Laura Menagh would say that music is the cheapest therapy around. It gives voice to her inner being, responds to the world around and helps her sleep at night. Music joins her in a morning cup of coffee and goes with her on her commute to work. Bob Seger’s Old Time Rock and Roll helps her prepare for the school day and Charlotte Diamond's Four Hugs a Day greets her grade two and three students as they walk through the classroom door. The school day begins with singing and the children realize that singing is a great way to practice reading. Each one of them has a singing finger that tracks the words as they sing. Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier - Prelude No. 1 provides perfect background music for printing practice and journal writing. The day is just new.
Laura’s passion for music extends beyond her classroom. She has coordinated Christmas concerts for what seems like forever and is convinced each year that she will never do another. That, of course, changes with the advent of the next holiday season. While her students are in PE, Laura sings with the Kindergarten class and on Thursday afternoons, she does music and art with the grade six and seven students. Those students illustrated Allan Jackson’s Let It Be Christmas, memorized and performed it for a the Christmas concert, and then turned it into a book which has been published and added to the school’s library.
For the last 6 years, Laura has taken her students on monthly visits to the neighbouring seniors’ care home. Music fosters intergenerational connections as students and elders sing together. Each visit ends with Four Hugs and Day with a variety of hands, some smooth and some wrinkled, doing the actions together. Laura arranged for the whole school to visit one of the residents who was celebrating her 109th birthday. The students sang Happy Birthday and of course, Four Hugs a Day. The residents sang along.
Laura has experimented with ukuleles, kazoos, rhythm instruments, drums and has lately ventured into the Boomwhacker world. She plays the piano, flute, guitar and is learning to play the violin.
Laura would also say that music is full of surprises. Last year, she thought she would start a fiddle club at her school and was hoping for ten or twelve children. Laura recruited Jo Blaak, a local violin teacher and member of the Fiddle Chicks, to work with the students. To Laura’s surprise, twenty-one children registered and made their debut performance eleven weeks later at the school’s Christmas program. The violin group, now christened “1230 Strings”, welcomed another nineteen students in January of that same school year. Forty children ended the school year with a fiddle jam on the lawn at the seniors’ home, a significant number when one realizes that her school has a population of 107. This year the violin program, “1230 Strings”, continues with thirty-two students, twelve of whom are new to the program. Laura has subsidized the violin program with her own money, and provides a number violins for a number of students. Laura also organizes the school bookkeeping that is inherent in this program and maintains a 1230 Strings website. (http://1230strings.com) She has ensured that MP3 files are on line to facilitate student practicing. Laura accompanies the violin groups on the piano and will often invite parents to play along at fiddle jams.
One of Laura’s favourite quotes is
Music may achieve the highest of all mission: she may be a bond between nations, races, and states, who are strangers in many ways; she may unite what is disunited and bring peace to what is hostile. Dr. Max Bendiner
She believes that music is an ambassador for good and celebrates the rich diversity of of our existence. Because of this conviction, Laura is leaving a legacy of music for the students she works with and the world she loves. Our school is fortunate to be part of that world.
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