While it is important for students to partake in the arts and actually learn how to play jazz music, it is also critical that students learn about the evolution of jazz music. Jazz music is a genre that can be used to define American culture, and it is critical for students to study its roots in order to gain a better understanding of American society.

The first jazz history course was offered at the New School of Social Research in New York City, however in the modern United States jazz history has been incorporated into social studies curriculums from kindergarten up to twelfth grade. Even though jazz history courses are offered in universities across the country, the purpose of this section is to promote education in public schools. The main focus is that students are taught the material as part of their social studies requirement.

The Thelonious Monk Institute has made an effort to promote a national jazz history education by creating the Jazz in America: The National Jazz Curriculum, which offers eight fifty minute lesson plans. There are different lessons designed to be included into either 5th, 8th, or 11th grade social studies or American history courses. The purpose of these lessons is to provide a historical overview of jazz, compare different jazz styles, examine contributions of important performers, and the social, economic, and political scenarios in which jazz evolved. The program is also meant to provide students in developing a better understanding of America’s diverse cultural heritage.

While the Thelonious Monk model is online, Matthew Mooney’s work at University of California, Irvine has furthered the place for jazz in social studies curriculums. Mooney has incorporated jazz into his history textbook, which is designed to be used by state education boards when creating their curriculum, thus having a more direct impact on public schools.

Mooney’s work is comparable to the Monk model. He wants students to understand why jazz has failed to be universally embraced in the United States, and incorporate the racial undertones of the early twentieth century into his version of jazz history. It is common for traditional social studies classes to refer to the 1920s and 30s as the jazz age, but they fail to provide much context or depth in the material. Mooney wants students to answer the questions “why” and “how” the United States was “transformed by jazz.”

The lessons in Mooney’s text requires students to analyze song lyrics and listen to them in order to decipher the sentiment of the time. Students are required to speculate why Americans objected or preferred jazz. Then sections focused on cultural movements and diffusions teach about migration patterns and cultural phenomena like the Harlem Renaissance. This type of analysis helps students with essential skills regarding to historical analysis.

The inclusion of jazz history is essential for American public schools as it provides students with an enhanced knowledge of how cultural diffusion has changed the country’s identity over time. It also provides an opportunity for students to learn about significant historical figures, who played a role in the breaking down of racial barriers and integrating American society. The study of jazz music and its growth during the era of JIm Crow laws helps students better understand how society could later become integrated.

-zk