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General Background
The Havrutav program for the instruction of music and Hebrew poetry in elementary schools aims at providing high quality linguistic and musical education to children of all social backgrounds.
The program's three guiding principles are:
- Music instruction centering on musical experience; study of an instrument to enhance cognitive skills and reduce levels of stress and violence.
- Hebrew poetry study centered on the literary-aesthetic experience as well as development of literacy skills, identity-formation and identification with Hebrew culture.
- Interpersonal skills, for the promotion of the values of friendship and mutual respect, development of team-working skills, so essential in the contemporary workplace.
The Havrutav program was developed by a team of musicians with rich backgrounds in music education: Idit Paz, Natalie Baron, Slava Vinikur, Yaakov Frankenberg.
The team is led by composer Eran El-Bar who developed the method with the assistance of the Mandel Leadership Institute, and the support of world-renown educators, Prof. Haim Adler, Dr. Rachel Har-Zion, Yossi Eitan, Dr. Edna Inbar, and the poet and scholar Hamutal Bar Yosef.
The entire team was involved in leading the program during its first year of operation.
Havrutav has been implemented at two schools in Jerusalem, and has proven during its first three years of operation that it can successfully transform a school with very little musical education into a school where music serves a central educational tool: beginning with pure musical education, and ending with appreciation and love of Hebrew poetry, teamwork, tolerance, and more. The program has been instrumental in integrating immigrant music teachers (from the CIS chiefly) in Israeli society and creating an engagement with Hebrew culture.
The program is currently operative in the Jerusalem elementary schools Korczak and Szold, in collaboration with the Jerusalem municipality and the Jerusalem music center at Mishkenot Shaananim. Within these schools the students' and teachers' approach to music has been utterly transformed. Music has become an integral part of school life, through professional musical training, and evidenced at ceremonies and events throughout the year.
Pooling of resources by the ministry of education and the schools, the local authorities and foundations has enabled third grade classes to be divided into small study groups, where students rotate every day of the school week. One class learns to play the recorder, one class studies Hebrew poetry, and one class pursues a three-month workshop where children study piano in groups of three. Grades 1 and 2 are designed as preparatory classes, and Grades 3 and 4 as continuation classes.
The following testimony was addressed by one of the project instructors to the program's steering committee:
"Havrutav is an inseparable part of school. Everything flows so naturally and smoothly, it has become second nature for the children and the staff. The difference between the 6th graders who did not have the benefit of participating in the program and the 2nd to 4th graders is immense. Music is an essential part of the world of the latter group: the entire world of poetry, of listening, the positive approach to music and to making music"
The group of teachers who serve as the program's instructors is comprised of a select group of the school's staff, music appreciation teachers, and practical music instructors, the group of teachers and musicians meets once a month for a joint study and planning session. The session – in the form of a "hevruta" – a traditional Jewish study session – is devoted to in-depth study of poetry and musical and pedagogical contents. In addition to the sessions study goal, it is also designed to generate interest among the home-room teachers in the world of music and to engage the music teacher's interest in Hebrew culture. In addition it is designed to bring together the entire staff and to create a foundation of professional commitment and excellence.
