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HAPPY FRIDAY 3/21/25
YOUR STATE SONG
CLASSROOM MUSIC: THE STATE SONG By Karen Ellis
https://edu-cyberpg.com/Music/statesong.html
WHAT IS OFFENSIVE NOW IN 2019 – TEACH IN CONTEXT
THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND BY WOODY GUTHRIE
The Scots-Gaelic Sanas of Ku Klux Klan ~ Dan Cassidy
Jim Crow – Jump Jim Crow Scottish roots of the KKK
Maryland May Have To Change Its State Song Because It’s TOO RACIST
https://edu-cyberpg.com/Linguistics/irish3.html
TEACHING TOLERANCE
Folk and work songs always have been windows into culture and history. But many of the Hate songs being sung by “folk groups” at “folk music events” show the Intersection between Cultural Identity and Racist Ideology.
PREPARATION:
ASK: Does an action require racist intent to be #racist?
2019 Article – Is Blackface always racist? What is considered offensive in 2019?
The ugly legacy of #minstrelsy.
Teach & Discuss in Context:
Teacher Planbook: Integrating Folk Music, Folklore and Traditional Culture Instruction Into K-12 Education
“Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” – Will Rogers
“Tradition is not to preserve the ashes, but to pass on the fire.” ~ Gustav Mahler
TEACH HISTORY THROUGH MUSIC
AMERICAN CULTURE MAKERS
Character Education
Music and History
TEACH AMERICAN HISTORY THROUGH MUSIC:
the conjunction of ‘routes’ and ‘roots’ as cultural metaphors
Remember State Standards are dead.
Evaluate your own State Standard 8th grade history in comparison with California.
FOLKLORE STANDARDS
<<< 2005 >>>
Date: Sun, 20 Nov 2005 11:00:29 +1100
From: “John Handley” <jo*********@**********et.au>
Subject: Re: Stephen Foster
Are there any African Americans on this emailing list?
—————–
From: Martha Stanley <Martha [ @ ] marthabees.com>
Subject: Re: Stephen Foster
I grew up in Florida and I live in Florida.
I learned the “Old Folks At Home” song as “Oh, Lordy, how my heart grows weary.”
That’s how I teach it.
Some sing, “Oh, children, how….” but I don’t like that as much.
If I have time, I point out the dialect spelling to the kids and ask them to notice how he was able to spell words the way he heard people say them. Let me say that I teach kids who talk like his dialect sounds, so it’s not a stretch.
I always point how how people get homesick, and that this is a “homesick song” and isn’t it amazing how well he was able to convey that feeling. I accompany myself with a gently swaying river-like pattern and sing all three verses to them to introduce it. The song grabs them. I NEVER hear a pin drop. It’s like they really “get” the homesickness.
It’s a good song. Foster was indeed a great writer. Maybe a supremely lousy business man, but a wonderful composer of songs.
The best site I’ve found for Foster is pbs.org. Lotsa interesting info including the point that he was VERY concerned about making his music about slaves respectful.
One of my fave is Angelina Baker, who was black. He made references to her with the same politness as white women of the day got and apparently caught some flak for doing so. His song “Old Black Joe” is a touching tribute to a loved black man. Unheard of.
He was ahead of his time in many ways.
I understand that Kentucky recently recanted “My Old Kentucky Home” as its state song — this may not be accurate —- due to some people believing that he was racist.
The irony is that he was a leader in the arena of respectfulness toward blacks.
Martha in Tallahassee
____________________________________________
Message: 6 Date: Sun, 20 Nov 2005 07:05:50 -0500
From: Kay Lovingood <kaylov [ @ ] comcast.net>
Subject: Re: Re: Stephen Foster
Martha,
Thanks for doing a great job of explaining Foster. He was, indeed, a wonderful song writer, and one of the first American song writers of note to be published. These things make him important.
He wrote many songs without a hint of dialect or racism, such as Oh, Susannah. And although his songs may seem racist now, they were ahead of the times back then, as you pointed out by saying that he treated his subjects with dignity. He lived in abolitionist territory, and his best friend was a strong abolitionist. His songs point out that whether we speak the same, whether we have the same educational or economic background, we do all have the same emotions and desires: homesickness in the case of Old Folks at Home, and personal dignity in the case of Angelina Baker and Old Black Joe. I think this was his way of using his craft to make people notice slaves as people. If he had written the same songs in plain English, instead of dialect, no one would have noticed his message of humanity, because no one would have noticed that they were about, or being sung by, slaves.
About a year and a half ago I went to the Stephen Foster State Park and Interpretive Center in northern FL. The museum there was empty, so I had the full attention of the park ranger there. She was enthusiastic and very knowledgeable. We had a great conversation, and she gave me some material on his life. The little store there has several books and CDs that I used to teach my kids about him. And yes, the pbs.org is where she directed me for further study.
Kay in GA
MY COLLECTION OF 100 CHILDREN’S SONGS KNOWN IN THE PAST
~ KAREN ELLIS
(HOW MANY DO YOU KNOW?)
(HOW MANY DO KIDS TODAY KNOW?)
A Tisket, A Tasket
All the Pretty Little Horses
Bought Me A Cat (the cat pleased me)
Bingo
Did You Ever See A Lassie
Eency, Weency Spider
Farmer in the Dell, The
Hickory, Dickory Dock
Hokey Pokey, The
Hush Little Baby (don’t say a word, papa’s …)
Rockaby Baby (in the treetops, when the wind…)
If You’re Happy and You Know It
Looby Loo
Mary Had A Little Lamb
Muffin Man
Mulberry Bush
Oats, Peas, Beans, and Barley Grow
Oh! Dear! What Can the Matter Be?
Oh, Where Has My Little Dog Gone
Old John the Rabbit
Old MacDonald
Polly Wolly Doodle
Pop! Goes the Weasel
Ring Around the Rosies
Row, Row, Row Your Boat
She’ll be Comin’ Round the Mountain
Take Me Out to the Ballgame
There’s a Hole in the Bucket
This Little Light of Mine
This Old Man
Three Blind Mice
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
Wheels on the Bus, The
All Night, All Day
Amazing Grace
Aura Lee
Away in a Manger
Billy Boy
Camptown Races
Cindy
Clementine
Columbia, Gem of the Ocean
Cotton-Eyed Joe
Crawdad Song
Dixie
Down by the Riverside
Down in the Valley
Drill, Ye Terriers, Drill!
Erie Canal, The
Follow the Drinkin’ Gourd
Frog Went A-Courtin’, A
Go Down, Moses
Go Tell Aunt Rhody
Go Tell it on the Mountain
God of our Fathers
Goober Peas
Goodbye, Old Paint
He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands
Home on the Range
I Couldn’t Hear Nobody Pray
I’ve Been Workin’ On the Railroad
Jim Along, Josie
Blue Tail Fly, The
Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho
Kum Ba Yah
Liza Jane
Michael Row the Boat Ashore
Oh, Susanna
Old Chisholm Trail
Old Folks At Home (Way down upon the Swanee River, far, far away)
Onward Christian Soldiers
Over the River and Through the Woods
Rock-A-My-Soul
Shenandoah
Shoo Fly
Shortnin’ Bread
Simple Gifts
Silent Night
Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child
Susie, Little Susie
Sweet Betsy From Pike
Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
Water is Wide, The
We Gather Together
When the Saints Go Marching In
You Are My Sunshine
America
America, the Beautiful
Battle Hymn of the Republic
God Bless America
Marines’ Hymn (From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli)
Star-Spangled Banner, The
Caissons Song
This Land is Your Land
When Johnny Comes Marching Home
Yankee Doodle
You’re A Grand Old Flag