Reborn music program nurtures souls of Waring School kids

SEATED IN A circle behind their 15 African drums last spring, the Laura Waring School kids smiled when Mary Schumacher, their music teacher, said, "OK, we're going warp speed, right?"

She set a blistering pace. Her young drummers stayed right with her. Then, each child took a turn on the lead, drumming out his or her own beats that the other kids echoed, call-and-response style.

The '50s-era public school classroom, on Green Street near 18th in Spring Garden, rocked with hard-driving rhythm, intense furrowing of young brows and satisfied grins all around at the end.

The little drummers of Waring are a big miracle at a time when chronically cash-strapped Philadelphia public schools have been stripped of their music and arts programs and turned into creativity deserts that offer no artistic stimulation to young minds hungering for it.

The crisis of desperately deprived schools is shockingly clear on the crowd-funding website, donorschoose.org, where hundreds of Philadelphia classroom teachers personally beg the public to fund pencils, paper, books and other essentials because the school district stopped paying for bare-bones needs years ago.

Last fall at Waring, where 100 percent of the children are from economically disadvantaged families, principal Brianna Dunn boldly decided to rely on the generosity of neighborhood community groups to buy basic supplies so she could scrape together enough money from her threadbare budget to hire a full-time music teacher.

The problem was, she had no instruments.

Meanwhile, the Zuritsky family, owners of the Parkway Corporation, were looking for a way to make a boots-on-the-ground difference in the lives of children at a neighborhood public school.

"We wanted to do a project where we could move the needle, where we could see progress from Day 1 in September to June," Parkway executive Charles Craige said.

Craige and like-minded colleague Roseann Amendola met with Dunn and shared an "ah-ha!" moment that provides a glimmer of light at the end of the increasingly grim tunnel for helplessly broke Philadelphia public schools.

"During the initial conversation, they wanted to impact the school by giving money," Dunn said. "I said, 'Money is good but a partnership can be a lot deeper.' "

That was music to Craige's and Amendola's ears.

Parkway Corporation spent $15,000 on instruments - including 31 guitars, 15 African rhythm drums, 30 recorders and 30 rhythm sticks - so that each of Waring's 340 students, grades K through 8, could have hands-on musical classes and individual lessons every week throughout the school year.

"When the guitars started arriving at the school, it felt like Christmas every day," Schumacher, the music teacher, said.

That feeling lived in the children's hearts all year long.

"My old school, Walter D. Palmer closed down because it wasn't getting the resources," said Lawrence Harris, a third-grader, speaking with an earnest wisdom far older than his 9 years."Most schools don't have the resources," he said. "But here, I've got this opportunity to play a recorder twice a week. It is hard, but once you learn to play it, you're perfectly able to flow with it."

Harris said he was flowing with "Hot Cross Buns" and was halfway to flowing with "Gently Sleep." He looked very happy to be flowing with his music.

His third-grade classmate, Kadidia Djire, also 9, said the challenging part of learning recorder was getting the right pitch, but once she did, "You feel like you have magic fingers because the sound of the music is so beautiful."

She said her mom used to play clarinet. "She told me the first song she learned was 'Hot Cross Buns,' just like me," Djire said. "Sometimes, I take the recorder home. My mom says some words. I make up a song. I don't know if I want to be a singer or a music player."

Tamir Speights, an eighth-grader who took solo and group guitar lessons twice a week, said: "Ms. Schumacher and the people here, they actually care. When I first heard we were getting a music teacher, I thought, 'Oh, man, our school must be really lucky.' I felt I was in the right place.

"We're doing the kinds of things a lot of people don't get to do," Speights said. "Maybe I might turn this into being a musician. Maybe I might do something else. But whatever I do, this could really change my life."

Music is life changing for a child, Schumacher said, because, "The shyest kid in the class comes out of his shell and is drumming his heart out in front of everyone else. We see kids jamming on guitars and drums in here during lunch hour.

"Even if they're struggling academically or socially, they come in here to have an outlet. This is a safe haven. Music helps them shine."

Dunn said the every-student music program connects to reading and math performance. "Students who are artistic build self-confidence and expand the skills which help overall achievement. Music provides them with an opportunity they may not have in their home environment."

The first full year of the Waring music program, she said, has "been beyond anything I could have hoped for. We've seen a boost in self-esteem. We've seen teachers develop stronger relationships with students because now they see a talent in the students they never saw before."

As part of their fully committed partnership, Parkway Corporation also sent volunteers to Waring every Monday afternoon to give children one-on-one homework and grade-level reading and math help.

"Seeing the smiles on the children's faces from having that attention and that individual relationship with an adult - that's so positive," Dunn said.

"They have perfect attendance during tutoring days," she said. "There are high-fives. They're more eager to do their work. They're getting the help that they need. They feel more successful."

Dunn tested five of the students who received one-on-one help last year and found dramatic improvement in reading fluency and comprehension scores.

Leah Coleman, reading coordinator for kindergarten through third grade, wasn't surprised. She watched Parkway's Roseann "Ms. Rose" Amendola engaged in an intense conversation with one of the children, smiled and said, "When Ms. Rose goes back to college and gets her teaching degree, she's coming with us!"

Recently, Parkway's Amendola and Craige met with Dunn, planning to fund the expansion of Waring's modest art program into ceramics and mosaics this year.

In just one academic year, Laura Waring School went from having a music teacher with no instruments to a joyful symphony of drumming, strumming students.

"When these children have someone caring to listen to them and help them, you see their faces light up, Coleman said. "Schools have been losing out for so long. Things like this are so critical for the children."