What type of music do you like to listen to? I love Top 40 music from any genre or decade. Pop, rock, country, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s or Today, I love it all. Some of you might be sitting there going, “Yes! I’m with you!” and others might be thinking “really Lisha, Top 40 music?” or “country music? seriously?”. And then others may be “why do you always have to have music on, can’t you just turn it off and have some quiet time?”
The thing is, we all have unique tastes when it comes to music. We like what we like and what we don’t like can be like nails on a chalkboard. Many arguments exist over what type of music should be played in our schools. There are even debates over whether music should be played in an educational environment. I’m not going to get into that right now, that conversation is for another day.
For now, let’s talk about how do you decide what music should be played in the school? Do you leave it up to each classroom or student salon area, so that walking through the school sounds like you are walking through a music gallery? Maybe your owner likes country music so only country music is allowed. Sure, that makes students who love country happy, but what does it do to everyone else. Perhaps you have an instructor who doesn’t want any music to distract from the seriousness of education, so they say, “no music allowed” and how do the students respond to that?
The thing is, we want to play music, so we need to come up with a way that will make the students, instructors, staff, owners and clients happy, most of the time.
My friends at Searcy Beauty College were facing this very problem. Everyone was complaining about the music and here is what they came up with.
They purchased a yearly subscription to Sirius Radio which has hundreds of channels. They went through the list of channels and came up with a list of approved stations. Basically, they removed anything that was inappropriate to listen to in a business, such as talk radio, sports, news, and religious stations. And then they leave it up to the students. They rotate through the student body roster and select one student to be the DJ of the Day. That student has control over what station the school listens to for that day.
This is a great solution for many reasons. You don’t have to worry about inappropriate music because all stations are approved. Students feel like they have control over what they listen to. And you don’t have to listen to anything you dislike for too long, because the next day, a new student takes over and the station changes. Another win win win solution!
There is an added benefit to this solution. I see this as a way to improve attendance and tardiness. If it is the student’s turn and they are absent or late, they lose their turn and it rotates on to the next student. I don’t know about you, but I’d make sure I was on time if it was my turn to be the DJ for the day!