The Real Reason to Teach American Songs in Kindergarten

By Jill Simonian

Music unifies through differences. It’s been said that the history of a people is found in its songs. So why, in this most contentious time of division, isn’t every Kindergarten classroom singing songs to unite our youngest Americans, through differences, from the very beginning of their educational experience?

Visit any elementary school, and I’ll wager you’ll be hard-pressed to find children who recognize, much less know the words to, timeless melodies that have endured and carried us as Americans through our flawed but shared history. At one time, patriotic and folksongs were standardized lessons throughout Kindergarten and First Grade, to establish foundational love of country before our nation’s mistakes and stains were broached in middle and high school. No more.

Once again, this year’s Gallup poll measuring patriotism among young people hit a 25-year all-time low — only 30 percent of Gen Z and younger Millennials (age 18-34) claim they are “very” or “extremely” proud to be American. As a mom of two teens, I’m saddened that most of my daughters’ generation likely aligns with these dismal findings… and was likely never introduced to America’s glorious story through the songs that carried their grandparents through hard economic times and wars protecting our liberty. Thanks to my own weekly research and commentary about the miseducation happening inside American classrooms, I’m now convinced that removing our nation’s patriotic songs and folk music from early education standards allowed for the infiltration of anti-Americanism now wielded at our youngest learners.

How can a nation sustain and thrive, generation after generation, without a shared cultural literacy of stories, melodies, and gratitude for courage and sacrifice? It can’t.

Little children are not exactly predisposed to memorize dates and names in textbooks, but they absorb knowledge through songs. Long before they start understanding the significance of events or of ideas, they’re singing melodies that connect them to their peers and stick with them for life. By erasing the most fun and joyful aspects of learning American history through songs, schools are collectively abandoning an inclusive opportunity to fully unite and engage all students from a very young age, and solidify a foundational love and respect for guiding one’s country towards the future — through its past faults.

This matters to me. It should matter to all of us.

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Take “America the Beautiful.” Most of us know the words, but not the story. Katharine Lee Bates wrote the poem after traveling to the top of Pikes Peak in Colorado in 1893. Looking across the mountains and endless plains, she was inspired by America’s natural beauty and wrote about how our country is partially defined by the breathtaking land we care for and steward together.

Then there’s “Oh, Susanna.” Its funny lyrics and catchy melody are entertaining, but the song actually introduces young children to “the father of American music,” Stephen Foster, during America’s westward expansion during the nineteenth century.

Or, how many children do you suppose are at all familiar with one of our oldest and most meaningful military anthems, “The Marines’ Hymn?” What happens to a nation if children aren’t encouraged to appreciate bravery, service, sacrifice, and honoring God and country? I don’t want to find out.

Songs outlive the generation who first sang them. Songs bridge grandparents, parents, and children who may live in very different times but who can still hum the same chorus together. Songs unite diametrically opposed peers through differences, disagreements, and discourse. Our American history and culture are being erased before our eyes, partly by way of our schools abandoning the very music that connected us for hundreds of years.

Our youngest children deserve to learn the beautiful, meaningful, enduring values and stories that bind us together. They deserve to know the songs soldiers marched to, pioneers sang, workers hummed, and families honored for generations. They deserve to learn to love this free nation we are blessed to call home — before headlines, hashtags, and politicized classrooms coerce them into believing that their neighbors are oppressors and America is not worthy of gratitude or celebration.

Jill Simonian is the Director of Outreach of PragerU Kids and host of “Parent Alert.” Her latest video series, “America’s Favorite Music Show,” teaches preschoolers the timeless melodies that built and unified America.

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