Giving Compass' Take:

• David C. Barnett reports that Canterbury Elementary in Cleveland Heights plays classical music every morning in order to promote calmness and make students feel welcome at school. 

• The article highlights the importance of a calm and welcoming environment for low-income students. Could this type of intervention be part of improving the experience of low-income students in your local schools? 

• Learn how classical music experts could offer their expertise to teachers as an effective form of volunteering. 

David C. Barnett: Every morning at 9:00, students at Canterbury stop for a moment and listen to a few minutes of Cleveland Orchestra music.

Chase: It's like when you're at home, it's cold outside and you're sitting by a fireplace. All this stuff that was stuck in my head, it goes away.

David C. Barnett: This exercise is part of Ohio-grown relaxation program called Mindful Music Moments. Chase's teacher, Jasmine Venson says the whole school does it at the same time.

Jasmine Venson: We play it over the loudspeakers, and every classroom kind of individualizes it their own way. Some classrooms have it where everybody is just centered and their eyes are closed. Others work on an activity while they're listening, but all classes participate.

David C. Barnett: The daily music segments are about four minutes' long in total, which includes a brief spoken introduction, followed by a three-minute musical selection.

Jasmine Venson: For the whole week, you listen to the same song, but there are different activities that are included each day of the week, whether it be listen to the music, or try to find the pace of the music, or try to align your breath to the pace of the music, different things like that.

Erica Wigton: We have kids coming from parents that are just trying to make ends meet, working third shift, single parents. So we try to make school like a special place. That's one of the reasons we feel mindful music is a great way to start the day, because it recenters everyone, including myself. We just take a deep breath, so we're not starting frantically in that hyper mode at the start of the day.

Read the full article about using classical music in schools to promote calmness by David C. Barnett at PBS.