W. G. Rhea Elementary School

1. Listen when the teacher talks.

Benefit: When you are listening, you can hear the instruction. You will not miss important information.

2. Raise your hand to talk.

Benefit: Raising your hand  allows the teacher to finish what she is saying before you interrupt. Raising your hand also allows many people to have a chance at answering a question given by the teacher.

3. Come and go slowly and quietly.

Benefit: Walking will keep you from possibly tripping and falling. It can also keep you from running into the person next to you. Keeping quiet helps you to hear directions from the teacher as you move.

4. Instruments aren't toys, use them carefully.

Benefit: If everyone takes care of the instruments, we won’t break them. If they get broken, we will have no instruments to play.

5. Hands off teacher space.

Benefit: Teacher space is special because she keeps things that are breakable and expensive in this space. She also keeps personal things in her space. The teacher wants you to be extra careful with these things, so she asks you not to touch them without permission.

6. Hands, feet, and objects to yourself.

Benefit: Keeping everything to yourself will keep you out of trouble for hitting or kicking another. It also keeps others from wanting to hit or kick you (and that hurts!)

This page was included because some parents ask how their children earn their music grades when we generally do not have tests, etc. as in a regular classroom.  Only first and second grade students get a music grade.

Kindergarten does not have special area grades.

1st Grade and 2^nd Grade:  1st and 2^nd grade students receive a report card grade for music listed under “Citizenship.”  The grade choices are "O," "S," "N," and "U." ("O stands for outstanding. "S" stands for satisfactory. An "N" stands for needs improvement. "U" stands for unsatisfactory.) This grade will rate your child’s participation and conduct in the class. Participation grade is based on if your child actively participates in the music program, both in class and at the music plays. This includes active listening, class discussions, singing, playing instruments, following teacher directions, and participating in programs. Conduct grade is based on how well your child follows the classroom rules. He will receive an "O" if he has not broken any rules after warning. He will receive an "S" if he only breaks the rules after warning 2 or less times. He will receive an "N" if he breaks the rules after warning 3-4 times. And he will receive a "U" if he breaks the rules more than 4 times after warning, or if he has received an "N" the previous six weeks and I see no improvement.

The students will get a computer printout report card that has all classes listed.  Music will be listed on the left. The grade will be right beside the class name.

Music Education Rationale

Many people wonder, "Why teach music as part of the school curriculum? Isn't it an extra-curricular activity?"

Below is an explanation as to why I believe music is an important part of the school day:

1.     Music is an academic subject with its own special body of knowledge, skills, and unique ways of knowing and thinking.

2.     Musical intelligence is one of seven different human intelligences that need to be developed and nurtured.

3.     Music offers unique opportunities for creativity and self-expression.

4.     Music connects us to our history, traditions, and heritage.

5.     Music study enables students to experience all that is human as it inspires them, turns on their senses and emotions, opens their minds, and reaches into their inner selves.

6.     Music study enables students to develop skills such as abstract thinking, problem solving, self-discipline, and team work.

7.     Music can be integrated into other subjects in the curriculum, and content from other subjects may be integrated into the study of music.

8.     Music study challenges students to develop higher-order thinking skills, including analysis, synthesis, and critical and creative thinking.

9.     Music study enhances self-esteem, builds self-confidence, and encourages respect for others.

10. Music enhances the quality of life.

- from "Why Music: The Critical Curriculum for America's Children," by Carolynn Lindeman

2nd Grade will present Fa La La Land at KPAC on December 4. Please dress your child up for Christmas. They can wear jeans with a red/green shirt, or they can dress up a little more. Jackson, Lassiter, Miller, Currence, and Palmer's class will meet in the Paris Elementary lunchroom at 5pm, perform in KPAC at 5:30, and be done by 6pm. Butler, Welp, Lankford, and Watkins' classes will meet the the Paris Elementary lunchroom at 6:30, perform in KPAC at 7pm, and be done by 7:30pm.

Kindergarten will perform at show on April 28. More info to come in the spring.

First grade does not perform a music show. 

Music participation provides a unique opportunity for literacy preparation. Whether the children are singing, playing, or listening, teachers direct them to listen and hear in new ways which exercises their aural discrimination. Playing instruments and adding movement to the lessons teaches children about sequential learning which is essential in reading comprehension.

Plato once said that music “is a more potent instrument than any other for education”. You will find many teachers of young children who would agree with him. Recent research has found that music uses both sides of the brain, a fact that makes it valuable in all areas of development. Music affects the growth of a child’s brain academically, emotionally, physically and spiritually.

Music is academic. For some people, this is the primary reason for providing music lessons to their children. A recent study from the University of California found that music trains the brain for higher forms of thinking. Second graders who were given music lessons scored 27% higher on proportional math and fractions tests than children who received no special instruction. Research indicates that musical training permanently wires a young mind for enhanced performance. 

Music is physical. Music can be described as a sport. Learning to sing and keep rhythm develops coordination. The air and wind power necessary to blow a flute, trumpet or saxophone promotes a healthy body. 

Music is emotional. Music is an art form. We are emotional beings and every child requires an artistic outlet. Music may be your child’s vehicle of expression.

Music is for life. Most people can’t play soccer, or football at 70 or 80 years of age but they can sing. And they can play piano or some other instrument. Music is a gift you can give your child that will last their entire lives.

Information from:  Children's Music Workshop

 So you will be more human.

So you will recognize beauty.

So you will be more sensitive.

So you will be closer to an infinite beyond this world.

So you will have something to cling to.

So you will have more love, more compassion, more gentleness, more good - in short, more life!

Of what value will it be to make a prosperous living unless you know how to live?

1. In a 2000 survey, 73 percent of respondents agree that teens who play an instrument are less likely to have discipline problems.
   - Americans Love Making Music – And Value Music Education More Highly Than Ever, American Music Conference, 2000.

2. Students who can perform complex rhythms can also make faster and more precise corrections in many academic and physical situations, according to the Center for Timing, Coordination, and Motor Skills
   - Rhythm seen as key to music’s evolutionary role in human intellectual development, Center for Timing, Coordination, and Motor Skills, 2000.

3. A ten-year study indicates that students who study music achieve higher test scores, regardless of socioeconomic background.
   - Dr. James Catterall, UCLA.

4. A 1997 study of elementary students in an arts-based program concluded that students’ math test scores rose as their time in arts education classes increased.
   - “Arts Exposure and Class Performance,” Phi Delta Kappan, October, 1998.

5. First-grade students who had daily music instruction scored higher on creativity tests than a control group without music instruction.
   - K.L. Wolff, The Effects of General Music Education on the Academeic Achievement, Perceptual-Motor Development, Creative Thinking, and School Attendance of First-Grade Children, 1992.
6. In a Scottish study, one group of elementary students received musical training, while another other group received an equal amount of discussion skills training. After six (6) months, the students in the music group achieved a significant increase in reading test scores, while the reading test scores of the discussion skills group did not change.
   - Sheila Douglas and Peter Willatts, Journal of Research in Reading, 1994.

7. According to a 1991 study, students in schools with arts-focused curriculums reported significantly more positive perceptions about their academic abilities than students in a comparison group.
   - Pamela Aschbacher and Joan Herman, The Humanitas Program Evaluation, 1991.

8. Students who are rhythmically skilled also tend to better plan, sequence, and coordinate actions in their daily lives.
   - “Cassily Column,” TCAMS Professional Resource Center, 2000.

9. In a 1999 Columbia University study, students in the arts are found to be more cooperative with teachers and peers, more self-confident, and better able to express their ideas. These benefits exist across socioeconomic levels.
   - The Arts Education Partnership, 1999.

10. College admissions officers continue to cite participation in music as an important factor in making admissions decisions. They claim that music participation demonstrates time management, creativity, expression, and open-mindedness.
    - Carl Hartman, “Arts May Improve Students’ Grades,” The Associated Press, October, 1999.

11. "The musician is constantly adjusting decisions on tempo, tone, style, rhythm, phrasing, and feeling--training the brain to become incredibly good at organizing and conducting numerous activities at once. "
    - Ratey John J., MD. A User's Guide to the Brain. New York: Pantheon Books, 2001

Information from: Music Workshop

1. Early musical training helps develop brain areas involved in language and reasoning. It is thought that brain development continues for many years after birth. Recent studies have clearly indicated that musical training physically develops the part of the left side of the brain known to be involved with processing language, and can actually wire the brain's circuits in specific ways. Linking familiar songs to new information can also help imprint information on young minds.

2. There is also a causal link between music and spatial intelligence (the ability to perceive the world accurately and to form mental pictures of things). This kind of intelligence, by which one can visualize various elements that should go together, is critical to the sort of thinking necessary for everything from solving advanced mathematics problems to being able to pack a book-bag with everything that will be needed for the day.

3. Students of the arts learn to think creatively and to solve problems by imagining various solutions, rejecting outdated rules and assumptions. Questions about the arts do not have only one right answer.

4. Recent studies show that students who study the arts are more successful on standardized tests such as the SAT. They also achieve higher grades in high school.

5. A study of the arts provides children with an internal glimpse of other cultures and teaches them to be empathetic towards the people of these cultures. This development of compassion and empathy, as opposed to development of greed and a "me first" attitude, provides a bridge across cultural chasms that leads to respect of other races at an early age.

6. Students of music learn craftsmanship as they study how details are put together painstakingly and what constitutes good, as opposed to mediocre, work. These standards, when applied to a student's own work, demand a new level of excellence and require students to stretch their inner resources.

7. In music, a mistake is a mistake; the instrument is in tune or not, the notes are well played or not, the entrance is made or not. It is only by much hard work that a successful performance is possible. Through music study, students learn the value of sustained effort to achieve excellence and the concrete rewards of hard work.

8. Music study enhances teamwork skills and discipline. In order for an orchestra to sound good, all players must work together harmoniously towards a single goal, the performance, and must commit to learning music, attending rehearsals, and practicing.

9. Music provides children with a means of self-expression. Now that there is relative security in the basics of existence, the challenge is to make life meaningful and to reach for a higher stage of development. Everyone needs to be in touch at some time in his life with his core, with what he is and what he feels. Self-esteem is a by-product of this self-expression.

10. Music study develops skills that are necessary in the workplace. It focuses on "doing," as opposed to observing, and teaches students how to perform, literally, anywhere in the world. Employers are looking for multi-dimensional workers with the sort of flexible and supple intellects that music education helps to create as described above. In the music classroom, students can also learn to better communicate and cooperate with one another.

11. Music performance teaches young people to conquer fear and to take risks. A little anxiety is a good thing, and something that will occur often in life. Dealing with it early and often makes it less of a problem later. Risk-taking is essential if a child is to fully develop his or her potential.

12. An arts education exposes children to the incomparable.

By Carolyn Phillips -  author of the Twelve Benefits of Music Education. She is the Former Executive Director of the Norwalk Youth Symphony, CT.

From:  Children's Music Workshop

*In 1989, the Paris Special School District received a generous gift, which is still giving to the PSSD students over three decades later. It all started back in 1902 when Azariah Hancock sold the best spot on his farm, a hilltop site of an acre and a half in the southeast corner of the farm near Mineral Wells Avenue in Paris, TN. He did this to provide land for a new school to be built when it was expressed that Paris needed a new school. The school built there became Fairview School, which originally operated as an elementary school and later was a PSSD kindergarten. After the building became vacant, a proposed new shopping center was desired for the spot. But, thanks to a clause that Azariah Hancock had put in the original deed, the land was sold and the money was donated to a trust fund.

Azariah's deed stated that if "at any time for any reason it shall cease to be used for a public school house the title shall be vested in a board of trustees and their successors, elected by patrons of the school at this place, to be used for private schools, moral and literary meetings. . ." The 45 known heirs of Mr. Hancock and his wife, Parilee, were spread out all over the country. They all stood to benefit from the $129,600 sale of the property, but instead they all showed a remarkable sense of philanthropy. They established the A.H. and E.P. Hancock Fine Arts Trust Fund to benefit and provide PSSD students with cultural and moral programs and activities.

The Hancock Trust Fund Advisory Committee meets annually to establish the requests for the arts programs from each of the three PSSD schools. Then, one or more of the heirs presents the requests to the final Hancock Board meeting for final approval. Programs that have been approved in the past have consisted of everything in the arts from ballet, opera, story telling, and orchestra concerts.  Over sixty-nine thousand dollars has been donated for the programs to the PSSD schools since 1989!

The students in the PSSD are so fortunate to have the Hancock Trust Fund. Not only do the students get to experience the fine arts in a way that many people never get to in a small town such as Paris, but they also gain a sense of respect and admiration for the arts. They learn about the appropriate behavior that is expected of an audience. The music teachers are thankful for this trust fund as it helps to reinforce the concepts and skills that we teach every day. We are so grateful that our students get to experience much of the music that we just tell them about.

·          Much of the information above was taken from The Inkwell magazine, September 1989 issue, page five.

The Ticket Subsidy Program is another important way that PSSD students get to experience and enjoy professional arts performances. Funded by the Tennessee Arts Commission through the support of the Tennessee General Assembly, this annual grant provides ticket subsidy funds to arts and cultural events for public school students in West Tennessee. Some 83,000 students were served last year through this invaluable program. 

The programs listed below are funded from both the Hancock Fund and the Ticket Subsidy.  Rhea School staff and students are grateful!

W.G. Rhea's Hancock and Arts Commission Programs

Scheduled for the 2025-2026 School Year

Check back here soon for more information!

Click this link to view the Tennessee Arts Standards.