Listen to your children

I read with interest your front-page article “Parent: Lewd songs played at school” (April 27). As a “retired” DJ who played more than 25 middle school dances and a parent of an up-and-coming sixth-grader, I can understand both the parent’s concerns as well as the school’s dilemma.

I had great difficulty playing the middle schools years ago because of the content of the lyrics in the music kids were listening to. I purchased music from a source that pre-edited music (removing bad language) and provided warnings on songs that had inappropriate content – which was pretty much the majority of what was being requested by the students. Unfortunately, the music that Robin Horton said she heard at Stuarts Draft Middle School is exactly the same music she would have heard driving home on Q101 or watched on MTV during that same time period. It wasn’t reported whether inappropriate language was played over the speakers, but certainly the content is something of an eye-opener if you haven’t really stopped and listened to what your children might be listening to.

What I would recommend to all parents is to do just that – listen. Not just to the music your children are listening to but to your children specifically. Why do they choose to listen to the music they do? How are they interpreting what they are hearing? How does the music make them feel? This is the opportunity to reinforce the values you want your children to grow up with. Music today is rife with sexual references, the objectifying of women, violence as means to solve conflict, drugs as recreation and the deification of criminals and poor role models for our youth.

As much as I would like to consider the schools as a safe haven from those types of references, we can’t shelter our kids. They are exposed to these types of influences on a regular basis. I would argue, however, that it isn’t the music that is the cause of some of the moral decay in our society but the lack of communication and parental involvement to reinforce the social and moral values we should hold dear.

I praise Robin Horton for communicating her concerns to the school system (I’m confident she’s had the same conversation with her kids). Every parent has the right to be heard and share those issues that affect their children. I’d also encourage every parent to connect those same concerns with their kids. Sit down today and ask them to play you their favorite song.

Jeffrey D. Fife

Waynesboro Family YMCA