Music, Education, and Technology

Steven Van Zandt says rock ‘n’ roll saved his life. Now he wants to return the favor. The E Street Band guitarist and Sopranos star created the non-profit Rock and Roll Forever Foundation last year, as a vehicle to preserve the music that so shaped his life.

On December 2, 2007, he unveil the foundation’s first project: a middle- and high-school curriculum designed to introduce a new generation of teens to the music. The project, being created in partnership with education publisher Scholastic’s InSchool division, is endorsed by the National Association for Music Education (MENC). Scholastic will work to ensure course materials meet national education standards, so it could be used not only in music classes but also for humanities or social studies courses.

The plan is to distribute a 40-chapter curriculum, including teachers’ guide, lesson plans, DVDs, CDs and Web-based resources, free, beginning with the 2008-09 academic year, to the nation’s 30,000 or so middle and high schools. The curriculum will explore the cultural and historic impact of rock, beginning with pioneers such as Little Richard and Elvis Presley, through soul music, early girl groups, the British invasion, the psychedelic period and ending with today’s newer groups.

Van Zandt “is committed to not only making this something that kids will be excited about but also making it something that teachers and administrators can get behind,” says Ann Amstutz Hayes, a Scholastic vice president.

“We’re trying to reach everybody, whether a musician, a rock ‘n’ roll fan or not.” Van Zandt said. “We’re going to make a case that this art form is so interesting that you will be absolutely compelled to listen to it, and maybe even learn how to play it.”