My Nonprofit Reviews

Late August we received word that our music teacher was leaving our school. A friend of mine told me about Education Through Music (ETM). At the time, we were looking for someone with a commitment to making sure every student in our school had meaningful access to music. It was beyond our wildest hopes that this teacher could also make important interdisciplinary connections between music and other academic content areas. As we all know, arts programs are typically the first to suffer in times of economic hardship. Faced with rapidly diminishing budgets administrators often eliminate the arts—very often leaving students that perhaps most need creative and inspiration outlets high and dry.

The teacher—Jason—now working with us through ETM is, in a word, amazing. He is completely open and welcoming to all students, firmly believing that every student in our building can learn. Along with the phenomenal work he does every day in the school, the ETM program has given our teachers support in connecting music to other classrooms—showing them how music is integral to student development both academically and socially.

I firmly believe in arts education, but as one of those aforementioned principals I was dreading facing the increasing budget crisis in our district. I was sure that my students—in one of the most impoverished districts in New York City—would suffer because I would be forced to dismantle any sort of arts education in our school. I do not think I am over-exaggerating when I say that ETM has already been enormously influential and has given many of our students life-changing opportunities: in terms of their sense of self-worth, their appreciation of the arts, and their ability to connect the arts to every day life in and out of the classroom.

Sincerely,

Sameer Talati,
Principal of Samuel Stern (PS/MS 007)

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