I knew Dolly had a lot to teach my students, but I had no idea how much I would learn from her.
My curriculum this year has been blown up. Because of COVID-19 mitigation practices, my students can't sing, they can't play wind instruments, and they can't do dancing. This made me sad. I felt like this was a loss that I had to mourn for a while there last summer, but I moved this past this. More than anything, when we started school this fall, I was happy glad that even with all of the changes our school had to make, we still were able to provide time for music class.
I've been working on parts of the curriculum that I could modify and create a new curriculum. It's been a challenge, but it's always gratifying.
There is no pressure to prepare for concerts and performances since they were all canceled, so I feel more freedom to explore and try things that may not pan out. I'm able to give students the time they want to work on projects and allow them to have a more significant part in the pacing of our work together.
After mid-winter break, I decided to do a biography unit with my students. I needed material, and my 4th and 5th graders love read-aloud, so I got a bunch of musician biographies and spent some time reading. After reading and thinking, I decided to read my student a Who Is Dolly Parton by True Kelley.
Why? I had gotten some negative reactions throughout this school year when I played country music for them, so I wanted to do some work to help them better understand country music. I also wanted to find an artist who used their position and wealth for good, and I wanted to tell the story of someone who had dimensions and layers that my students could relate to. Dolly Parton felt like the perfect choice. Her music tells amazing stories, the stories of her life are entertaining and inspiring, and she has so much work inside and outside of country music to help other people.
I was ready to interject songs when I read about Dolly's life, but I didn't expect the wonderful conversations that came from students' reactions. We talked about how families are different as students were shocked to hear that she had eleven brothers and sisters. Students explored how schools are different when they learned she to a school with 15 students for grades K-8. I helped my students understand the sexism she experienced that shocked them when they heard about how one of her managers didn't want her to get married because he felt this would make her lose fans, why people were critical of her weight, and about the meaning of the song "9 to 5."
An important topic that we kept talking about is what it meant for Dolly to grow up poor and what she did in her life to use her wealth to help other people. I told my students that one of the hardest topics for adults to talk about is money. Even though everyone thinks about it, the differences in the economic situations that people have are important to consider in how we treat people and talk about our lives.
The story that was the most fun to tell and the students enjoyed the most was the story of "I Will Always Love You." My students were appalled at Porter Wagoner's treatment of Dolly and were both surprised and impressed with how Dolly took the higher ground and did right by him, even though he mistreated her. I wasn't sure how my students would react to "I Will Always Love You." With the story in mind and admiration for Dolly, they listened attentively, and afterward, they reflected how it was a really good song.
Some said it was sad, others said it was happy, and then I explained how both of these opinions were right. I talked about how you can be happy that you are on vacation and sad that it will end and that the most important moments of your life are a mix of emotions.
There is so much to learn from Dolly, and I am so glad that we took the time to really tackle many important issues that her life story brought to my student's attention. One of the most important lessons I learned from Dolly is it sometimes it's hard to believe in yourself, and that's the reason it's such a powerful and transformative thing to do.
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