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The Florida Times-Union
May 5, 2007
Cunningham
program uses music therapy to reach out to students
By MARK PETTUS, Music provides a container for all kinds of learning. Teachers can sometimes
strike a chord with students by using music to teach history, math and even
geography.
Now, thanks to fortuitous timing, a progressive principal, and a hand full of
generous benefactors, Cunningham Creek Elementary School is even using music to
teach motor skills and socialization to its most physically and mentally
challenged students.
When Minda Gordon, a music therapist, graduated from the University of
Georgia 20 years ago, she went to Emory University Hospital to work with
geriatric patients. She says there she used music to help the elderly overcome
depression and isolation. Since then Gordon has worked in schools, hospitals,
and hospice - any place there are people who can benefit from the use of music
to improve their health.
Betsy Wierda, principal of Cunningham Creek Elementary and a member of the
board of the St. Johns County Cultural Coalition, says she is committed to
bringing the arts to her students. Last year she launched Cunningham Arts
Reaches Everyone (CARE), a cooperative effort between the Exceptional Student
Education program at the school, the Cummer Museum of Art, the Cultural Arts
Center at Ponte Vedra Beach and the University of North Florida.
Meanwhile, The Woodcock Foundation, founded by John and Polly Guth as a way
to use their family's creativity and resources to help meet community
development needs, sought to invest approximately $2 million per year in
selected areas of interest, including the arts, where they can identify
individuals with strong leadership skills who will use the money for the
greatest good.
Now Gordon, Wierda and the Foundation are working together to bring music
therapy to Cunningham Creek's ESE students. But putting the program together
took a little bit of luck.
After the CARE program started last year, Weirda learned she had a volunteer
at her school who was a trained music therapist.
"I was a parent at the time, and [Cunningham Creek music teacher] Lori Zentz
asked me to volunteer, so I got on the CARE committee" Gordon said.
Once Zentz brought the principal and the parent together, Weirda and Gordon
went to work trying to create a workable music therapy program. By tapping into
her connections, Weirda was able to convince the Cultural Arts Center at Ponte
Vedra Beach to provide enough funding to hire Gordon part-time beginning in
January.
When the funding from the Cultural Arts Center was gone, Cunningham Creek's
School Advisory Committee agreed to fund the program for the remainder of the
school year. A grant from the Woodcock Foundation will allow Gordon to continue
offering therapy at the school through next year.
Gordon says she has been embraced by teachers and students, and that she is
already seeing effects from the therapy.
She said, "We had one young man who didn't say his name. Now he's singing his
name."
Gordon said music stimulates several senses at once and involves the child at
many levels. Depending on the music chosen, Gordon's therapy can be highly
motivating or it can be calming and relaxing. Involving the students in music
activities can also improve their self-esteem, she said. Research also shows
that music can help children manage pain and stress, and reduces depression.
Gordon says adding the component of music is helping students reach goals.
She has one student who has difficulty using both hands at the same time, so she
has him holding a tambourine in one hand and hitting it with drumstick.
"Without realizing it, he's meeting his goal of using both hands," she said.
School Board Chairman Beverly Slough says she would like to see the music
therapy program expanded to the county's other two ESE cluster schools.
"It's just a matter of finding the money," Slough said.
It might also be a matter of finding the therapists. Gordon says she is only
aware of one other music therapist in St. Johns County, and that therapist is
already employed as a teacher. Only one college in Florida, the University of
Miami, offers a music therapy degree, and Gordon says only 20 to 30 people major
in music therapy each year at her alma mater.
So for the foreseeable future Cunningham Creek's program will remain unique
in the county, and an example of what can happen when the right people are in
the right place at the right time.
mark.pettus@jacksonville.com, (904) 287-0618 ext. 202#
st. johns sun
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This story can be found on Jacksonville.com at http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/050507/nes_167422717.shtml.
