Aubin 1

Tristin Aubin
Mrs. Hensel
English IV
April 26, 2016
Narrative
My service hours were mainly comprised of observation and the occasional questioning
of the students of the St. James High School choir. I found that a lot of them despite having
other issues and complications still make time for music. They all take pride and have a great
amount of joy in this place. Most important is that they felt safe and accepted.
I asked the choir director Kenneth Bedwell what he felt was most important to having a
music program. He told me that, Music is a universal language and we all should teach and
encourage it or itll become another dead language. This one sentence hit home to me on quite
a few levels. I asked the students how they felt before coming in and after the class had ended.
The responses i got were wide in range but overall the central feeling they all shared was
accomplishment and happiness.
They all use music class as an escape from the troubles of academic aspect of school.
Choir student Reyna Papoto told me, Without music class i honestly feel i would be struggling
with my studies and want to drop out. Senior Julia Culler has stayed in the music department
since the beginning of her high school career and she feels that she has learned more there
than in any other situation. They had to do a lot of repetition and i was kind of curious as to why
and upon asking the instructor he informed me that its been proven to help with memory
retention and overall attentiveness when having to repetitively do something.
Students tend to use the music class as a motivational goal to make it through the day
just to get to this class. I asked how they incorporate music and what they learn into other
classes and they gave me a good response. They use it to help retain information by
associating certain songs with information they need to know. They even use it to help get along

Aubin 2
with the day and to stay focused and not get side tracked in other classes in order to complete
work in a timely manner instead of procrastinating until the end. Music is a vital part of schools I
gathered from my time with these students.