 Meet the schoolhouse rockers
GLENDALE NEWS PRESS
Monday, February 20, 2006
By Fred Ortega
News-Press and Leader
Educators Dan and Dave Kimber team up to help spice up lessons
with music.
Every state requires its public schools to teach civics. Getting students
to remember their civics lessons, however, is a challenge for even the
most creative of educators, including Hoover High School history teacher
Dan Kimber.
"In California we call our civic lessons standards, and to say they
are dry is an understatement," said Kimber, a 30-year educator and columnist
for the Glendale News-Press and Foothill Leader. "The kids hate it." Across the country in Michigan. Kimber's brother and fellow educator,
Dave Kimber, was having the same problem teaching his fifth and sixth-graders
all about the country's core democratic values of liberty, democracy
and diversity.
"I used to have lists of definitions on the board and when I would tell
the kids it was time to learn about another core democratic value, the
sighs were audible," said Dave Kimber, a musician by training who worked
with the likes of Elton John, Frank Zappa and Joni Mitchell before deciding
to earn his master's degree and go into teaching 12 years ago. Then one day the two brothers, both Crescenta Valley natives who graduated
from Crescenta Valley High School, had an idea: Why not combine Dan's
writing skills and Dave's musical experience to create a music CD that
would help teachers actually make civics fun for a change?
After a year of collaborating over the phone, the result was "Under
the Red, White and Blue: Songs of America's Core Democratic Values." The CD was a hit in teaching circles, 500 schools in Michigan use it
during lessons and the entire San Diego School District adopted the CD
for its civics program. Dan Kimber is already making inroads marketing
the disc to some schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Making the album, which features songs titled "Liberty," "Democracy/Popular
Sovereignty" and "Pursuit of Happiness," was challenging but entertaining,
Dan Kimber said. "I would send stuff I had written to Dave, and he would call me and
play a tune and ask what I thought about it," he said. Then Dave Kimber took the material to a friend's recording studio in
Nashville, taped it, and hired a gospel choir for backup on some songs.
A country music artist also pitched in for some of the tunes. The brothers
later came up with lesson plans that would help teachers incorporate
their individual teaching methods. "Now when I teach civics, I put in a song, lead them in some activities
afterward and then the reaction is, 'Can we learn some more democratic
values?'" said Dave Kimber, who was chosen as last year's Michigan Elementary
School Social Studies Educator of the Year. "We even put some karaoke versions of the songs in the CD,and some teachers
have told us that the kids have actually started doing their own little
patriotic shows to some of the songs."
The reaction from some of Dan Kimber's more discerning high school students
when he played one of the songs was more measured. "I used our Constitution song, and at first they acted like, 'What is
this stuff?' But then I noticed they were tapping their toes to the music," Dan Kimber said.
"We have gotten some really good feedback from teachers and students
about putting on shows with the songs and parents actually having tears
in their eyes, and, of course, that was music to our ears." The album's successes has led the Kimber brothers to plan a second CD
about famous American people and places. "I already have some rappers from Detroit lined up to do a Civil War
rap for us," said Dave Kimber, who sang and recorded Woodsy the Owl's
famous 1970s theme song, "Give a Hoot! Don't Pollute!" The CD's popularity among educators has been rewarding for Dan Kimber
in more ways than one. "It seems like it has never been more timely for our kids to learn about
these values than right now," he said.
For more information on the Kimber's CD, visit www.musicthatteaches.com. ***
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