Most weeks at The Open School’s virtual program there is an activity called Music Share. The rules of Music Share are simple, each student brings at least one song that they love and want other people to know about. Then we have a listening party with everyone’s music.
The norms around Music Share are equally simple, give everyone’s music a chance, after all, they love this music and the least we can do is give it a listen. The activity has been popular enough to spin off Long Music Share (for songs over 7 minutes), Album Share (full length albums), Holiday Music Share, 90’s Music Share, Artist Share (visual arts), and has even been incorporated into the weekly democratic School Meeting. This simple activity with its simple set of guiding principles represents an insight into a way to support the integration of individual autonomy within a strong and healthy community.
One of the core values at The Open School is recognizing each student as a unique individual. We stress student autonomy, including the ability to make decisions about how to spend your time. We carefully protect a student’s right to voice their opinion. We try to make it safe for a student to live as their authentic self. We support them on their individual journeys as they explore widely, dive deeply, play, and make meaning out of their experiences.
An equally important core value is being a part of a supportive community. That means not only being supportive and friendly to other members of the community but also sharing parts of yourself with the community including your interests, passions, goals, and achievements. The community and the individual are in support of each other.
In some ways it is easiest to describe the model of our school as a place where a student is free to pursue their own, unique journey. While that is true, it only tells part of the story. The reality is that the school is a community of individuals in support of each other’s journeys. The community provides resources, support, encouragement, and feedback. Staff are available to help advise and guide students. Students can elect to join or create activities, committees, classes, workshops, hangouts, and more all in pursuit of what is important to them. Much is possible, nothing is required.
We can use the Music Share activity as an example of the way that the individual and the group can be aligned in support of each other. Participating in Music Share means offering up something you love for the group to experience. In some ways this is an act of trust. After all, you do not know if anyone else will even like your music. You are trusting the group to listen to your song with an open mind. You will return the favor by listening to the other songs offered up in the group. The songs are a gift to the group. Everyone gets a turn, a chance to share and a chance to be an audience.
The students sponsor this activity most weeks. It is often on the schedule more than once a week. While it is true that some of our students are big music fans, it is also true that the activity has a reputation for being interesting, surprising, and genuinely welcoming to a wide range of music. Unlike the music discovery algorithm in a service like Spotify that is always offering you music that you might like, Music Share can challenge you to listen to music you might never consider. On any given week you might hear K-pop, shoegaze, bootgaze, speedcore, electronic dance, noise pop, indie rock, or Broadway musicals. What ties them together is someone from your community is offering it to you to listen. The world of music is enormous. Sometimes we need to push ourselves to listen beyond what we already know.
Music Share is representative of a bigger idea about what it means to be an individual pursuing your own goals within a community. Making choices, taking chances, following your dreams is hard work. In some ways it is a lot easier to just follow a path laid out for you. Instead we expect our students to put themselves out there and take responsibility for their learning. Sharing a song you pick in a group seems like a small thing but it isn’t entirely unlike sharing your hopes, dreams, ideas, or opinions. Being open to listening to someone else’s song, recognizing they are offering the song in good faith and meeting that attitude is not completely unlike accepting them as a unique, worthwhile individual, and providing an audience, support, and encouragement to them as they make meaning out of the world they encounter.
The spirit of Music Share is what we want to be as a community. A place where a student is not only empowered to make decisions but also gives and feels the support and trust and encouragement of others.
