Cooperstown News Bureau

EDMESTON — Middle school students in Jonathan Chase’s classes at Edmeston Central Sc

Star photo by Tom Grace Kori Hamm, an eighth-grader at Edmeston Central School, displays the model of a Montgomery, Ala., bus she constructed to honor civil-rights pioneer Rosa Parks on Tuesday.

hool are learning social studies by the lyrics.

Chase, a music lover, challenges his classes to incorporate music into their learning. When they study figures such as Jackie Robinson, who broke baseball’s color barrier, he wants them to remember more than dates and events from lives.

"I think the timeless nature of music can make a deep impression on us, so I ask students to give me a song that illustrates the people they are studying," he said.

Of course, to do so, students have to listen carefully to lyrics to interpret what songwriters mean, and this kind of critical th[an error occurred while processing this directive]In his classes, he wants the students to understand the lyrics, then draw connections between the songs and recent history.

The students have responded.

Kori Hamm, who is in Chase’s eighth-grade class, did a project commemorating the life of Rosa Parks, the late civil-rights leader. With the help of her father, Rod Hamm of Burlington Flats, she built a wooden bus — a replica of the one in Montgomery, Ala., where Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man in 1955.

And to illustrate Parks’ life musically, Kori chose the U2 song "Where the Streets Have No Name," which begins: "I want to run; I want to hide. I want to tear down the walls that hold me inside. I want to reach out and touch the flame, where the streets have no name."

"The project was fun to do and when I was doing my research, I did learn a lot about those times," Kori said.

The U2 song seems to help explain how Parks might have felt when confronted with injustice, she said.

Chase’s classes have been making memorials to famous people since 2002, and the works are posted on the Internet at http://www.learningfromlyrics.org/gallery.htm.

Some of the student’s choices of songs are naturally associated with their historical figures. The song chosen from the memorial to Princess Diana is Elton John’s "Candle In the Wind," rewritten for her.

For Jimi Hendrix, the song is "The Star-Spangled Banner," no doubt the version Hendrix made famous.

For other figures, the connections are less obvious but no less valid, Chase said. For example, Amelia Earhart is represented by Michael Bolton’s "Go The Distance" and John Ritter by the Kink’s "Celluloid Heroes."

"I’m continually impressed by what the students have come up with," he said.

When projects are completed, Chase often contacts artists, agents and songwriters to let them know their messages have hit home in Edmeston.

"We’ve heard from a lot of people," he said, "and they’re usually quite flattered that we’re paying attention to what they’re saying."