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JAM sessions fill music students with Southern pride
The Junior Appalachian Music program shows North Carolina students how to pick up instruments and strum old-time favorites.
By Leigh Ann Henion | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitorfrom the June 21, 2007 edition
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Sparta, N.C. - It was the flash cards that prompted Helen White to speak up. Seven years ago, the school counselor at Sparta Elementary School was observing a third-grade music class when the teacher held up pictures of stringed instruments for the students to see.
Ms. White, a musician with a deep appreciation for Appalachian culture, was stunned that the students were learning to recognize dulcimers and mandolins without knowing what they sounded like. "I own all of the instruments on those cards," she told the teacher afterward. "I'd love to bring them in so the kids could touch and hear them."
After the Sparta students' next music class, White allowed each pupil a moment with an instrument of their choice. One third-grader, whom White knew had been diagnosed with severe learning disabilities, chose the bass. When the student produced a deep, beautiful tone from the instrument, other students clapped in appreciation.
"She just beamed," White recalls, "and I thought to myself, 'We've got to get these kids instruments.' "
That desire laid the groundwork for JAM, or the Junior Appalachian Music program, in which children from third through eighth grade learn the fundamentals of bluegrass and Celtic music traditionally played in southern Appalachia. The program, designed by White, has spread to nine schools in the region and will appear in three more next school year. By learning from local guitar, mandolin, banjo, and fiddle musicians, public school students not only learn to strum and play by ear, they gain pride in their Appalachian roots and a sense of accomplishment.
"I think perhaps we've underestimated the importance of making traditional music in this region," says Sally Peterson, a folklife specialist with the North Carolina Arts Council. "I really think drawing local musicians from the community to teach has been a special part of this program and one of the reasons it's been so successful. These musicians and their students speak the same language; they come from the same backgrounds."
With the support of the National Endowment for the Arts, the North Carolina Arts Council, and a variety of local donors willing to supply instruments, each JAM program is developed to match its community's needs and capabilities. Some classes are held after school; others are offered during regular school hours.
Students must apply to be JAM musicians. Once accepted, they receive an instrument to use while enrolled in the program. At some schools, the program is free. At others, like Sparta Elementary, participating students are charged $3 to $10 a week.
In turn, the program "gives kids something to look forward to," says JAM student Austin Turner, a fifth-grader learning to play guitar.
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