[children playing happily on a playground] [ball bounces, running steps, happy chatting] [tender piano music] [tender music continues as birds chirp and cheep nearby] [song swells with emotion] [happy voices on the playground as music continues] [melody slows] DOUG GOODKIN: Music is a language.

It's a way of speaking.

It's a way of communicating that has something in common with language.

Both of them depend upon some kind of connection between people, some kind of communicating, "I feel this.

I want you to understand what I feel, find out what you feel, and let's find out what we feel together."

[tender piano music continues, children chat and laugh] The kids come in three years old.

They know they're musical.

They're musical down to the bone.

My job is just to keep that sense of musicality alive and nurture it.

[piano continues, slow duet on recorders] But at the root of it is that childhood musicality.

[tender song slowly fades into birdsong] [energetic rhythm pulses on a box drum] DOUG: Wow, I like that one.

[rhythm on drums continues] Let's see who knows when to start singing.

[kids sing "Funga Alafia"] DOUG: Ooh!

[traditional greeting song in the Yoruba language continues] ALL: ♪ Funga Alafia, ashay ashay Funga Alafia, ashay ashay ♪ [song winds down] DOUG: Ashay!

KIDS: Ashay!

DOUG: Ashay!

KIDS: Ashay!

DOUG: Ashay.

KIDS: Ashay.

[dramatic drum roll, then silence] [cacophony of voices over Bulgarian dance song on bagpipe] [students continue chatting as pipe and drum music builds] STEVE MORRIS: So if you raise your hand and you've got five fingers up, this is about how you're feeling to be back to school.

This means last night was hard to sleep because you were so excited.

You might've even slept in your clothes for today.

[laughter] You woke up before the sun came up.

Put your hands up where you are right now, where you are.

[boisterous chatting all around] DOUG: Kids, this is your trial.

[steady beat on drums] You can't start school until you sing.

Ready?

Just the kids.

First verse.

Ready?

1, 2, 3.

KIDS: ♪ Oh, when the kids go marching in ♪ DOUG: Thank you.

KIDS: ♪ Oh, when the kids go marching in ♪ DOUG: Uh-huh!

KIDS: ♪ Oh, how I want to be in that number.... ♪ DOUG: Okay, now here's your big chance.

Kids, parents, and everybody, here we go!

♪ Oh, when the kids!

Go marching in!

♪ DOUG AND KIDS: ♪ Oh, when the kids go marching in.... ♪ [cheery conversations, basketball bouncing] DOUG: First 8th grade class.

This is your first test.

-So I do it too?

DOUG: Yeah.

Like that.

Here we go.

-Oh.

[snaps] -Ow.

[laughter] DOUG: Yeah!

That was a good one.

So, I'm gonna spin around, I'm gonna say, "Good morning, class," and here's what you do.

You stand up straight really fast.

You put your hands here, you have a nice smile, and you'll say, "Good morning, Mr.

Goodkin."

You have to do it like one voice.

[students giggle] Then you sit down.

Then the class officially begins, and only one person can talk, and that person ain't.... STUDENT: Me.

DOUG: Ain't you, it's me at that point so you find out what we're gonna do.

Are you ready?

Good luck.

Don't forget to smile.

Here we go.

Good morning, class.

CLASS: Good morning, Mr. Goodkin!

DOUG: And then I'll pick one person to do the snap, and I'll try to pick a different person each time and then have a seat.

[students giggle] I'm gonna ask you a little riddle question.

What do you and I have in common this year at school?

Raise your hand.

Keyana?

KEYANA: It's our last year?

DOUG: It's your last year, and it's my last year, so we have that in common.

Although I think I'll come back and still visit and do things.

But before I take off, you have to learn a little rhyme that was made up by the most brilliant musicians on the planet: kids, right?

They made this up.

So, echo me.

I said a boom chick-a-boom.

CLASS: [tentatively] I said a boom chick-a-boom.

DOUG: ♪ I said boom chick-a-boom!

♪ I got interested in teaching... because I hated school.

I had a healthy curiosity about the world.

I started a rock club with my friends.

I would read a lot.

So, I loved learning, but school just... it's like, "You guys aren't doing it well."

[chuckles] I had an intuition without the language for it, you know?

I said a boom chick-a-rock-a-chick-a- rock-a-chick-a-boom.

I said a boom.

[hi hat keeps time as Doug continues the rhythm] Practice.

I said a boom chick.

Left foot.

Chick-a-rock chick-a-boom.

I said a boom chick-a-boom.

[bass drum and ride cymbal] Then everybody with your right foot, you're gonna do this.

A boom chick boom, a boom chick boom.

Yeah!

And this is the hardest part coming up.

Who's up for the hard part?

Ooh yeah.

Uh-huh.

Try it.

It's hard to describe to people what it means to be a music teacher 'cause some people have a very narrow vision, number one, of what it means to learn music, and number two, of what music actually is.

DOUG: ♪ Doon, a doon doon doon chick.

♪ ♪ A doon doon doon.... ♪ JOEL: So, he started like, "Boom chick-a-boom," and then he would say, "Boom chick-a-boom."

And everybody else was like, "What the hell is he doing?

Is this part of the class?"

[chuckles] But later on we connected the beat of jazz: tt-tth-tt-tthh.

That connected to what we were gonna do for the rest of the year.

DOUG: Right here.

[jazzy melody on percussion] Uh-huh!

There you go, mmhmm.

And the best part is here.

[cowbell joins the tune] [piano jumps into the song] [jazz style boom chick-a- boom continues, no lyrics] Good, Jennifer.

Yeah!

Uh-huh!

Oh yeah!

[students echo] Well, that's all.

End here.

And stop!

[music ends abruptly] Say, "Thank you for initiating me into jazz."

All right, good start.

See you later.

Hasta la próxima.

-Adiós.

KERALA TAYLOR: It would be very hard for me to envision my father having an office job or any kind of job that he didn't feel immensely passionate about.

[chuckles] I know that it will be many years before he's truly retired as in not doing any work at all, if that ever happens.

But within the last year, he made it official that this would be his last year at the San Francisco School.

[banjo plays a jaunty tune as kids chit chat] KIDS: Ashay, ashay.

[kids sing along quietly] DOUG: And who can listen to the banjo without making any sound yourself?

And put your pinky in the air if you can guess what the song is, but don't say it.

It's a secret.

Here it is.

[plays a slow melody] Wow, some kids showed me what it means by doing the motions.

Can you do the motions while I play?

Oh, that's so beautiful at the end when you went like that.

Mmhmm.

Now, real soft.

Sing back and do the motions.

DOUG AND KIDS: ♪ Who fed the chickens?

♪ ♪ I did ♪ ♪ Who stacked the hay?

I did ♪ ♪ Who milked the cow?

I did ♪ ♪ On this fine day ♪ DOUG: Point to me.

DOLORES ELKIN: My first year coming here, I had a break in the afternoon.

And once a week in that break, they had preschool singing with Doug.

DOUG AND KIDS: ♪ Who fed the chickens?

♪ ♪ He did ♪ ♪ Who stacked the hay?

She did ♪ ♪ And who.... ♪ DOLORES: I thought, "This guy's amazing.

He's brilliant.

I've got to spend my break in here with the kids, and I'm gonna learn songs."

And I loved it, and I went every week, and I learned as much as I could, his repertoire of songs, and what a community to have in the palm of your hand.

He was fun, gentle, expressive.

He was very thoughtful and very preciously careful with them, and it was heartwarming.

DOUG AND KIDS: ♪ Who fed the chickens?

♪ ♪ We all did ♪ ♪ Who stacked the hay?

We all did ♪ ♪ And who milked the cow?

We all did ♪ ♪ On this fine day ♪ ♪ Keep singing on this fine day ♪ ♪ Who had fun playing on this fine day?

♪ ♪ This song will end on this fine day ♪ [quiet giggling] DOUG: That was almost what I call the perfect ending.

However, I heard two little sounds from somebody's voice.

When I go like this for the perfect ending, it has to be...freeze.

Then when you see me relax, you can relax, but still don't talk.

Last chance to get the perfect ending.

Okay.

DOUG AND KIDS: ♪ On this fine day ♪ ♪ Two more times on this fine day ♪ ♪ Last time on this fine day ♪ [breathing, soft sounds] DOUG: Everybody say, "Take a sleep, banjo."

KIDS: Take a sleep, banjo.

[quiet conversations] DOUG: Sometimes I hear something new, or I hear the same thing that I've heard before, but I'm tuned into it in a different way, so I'm thinking, "Okay, this'd be a great song to do with the kids."

So, for example, I'm always looking for Blues.

So, this is a little piece called “Tiny's Tempo.” [upbeat, buoyant Blues tune on bass, drums, piano] [Doug hums along] Totally playable by the kids on the xylophones.

And it is one of the things that I know is gonna catch me when I'm officially retired from school.

It's like, "Wow!

This would be great to do.

Oh, I don't have any classes with those kids anymore."

[chuckles] [door creaks open, then shuts] [jazzy, syncopated tune on piano] When I was growing up in New Jersey, my father was playing the organ, and that inspired me to wanna play.

So, I started playing the organ at six years old, and then I added piano in 3rd grade.

GINNY MATTHEWS: Doug, he just would take off.

He could improvise right from the beginning.

He was not that interested in learning the standard pieces, and he often got in trouble with Mrs. Lutz, our organ teacher.

[chuckles] DOUG: The lessons were the typical lesson of, "Here's Trudy Treble and Bobby Bass.

That's a quarter note.

That's an eighth note.

Put your finger down there, curve your finger, put it together, play it," rather than singing or dancing or feeling the music in your whole body.

[mellow jazz tune plays] GINNY: My father would sit right next to the organ, and every time I made a mistake, he said, "You made a mistake.

Play that again."

[laughs] DOUG: At the end of high school, I could play Bach's “Toccata and Fugue in D minor,” but I couldn't sing in tune, I couldn't improvise rhythmically, I couldn't dance.

Something was way too narrow in that musical upbringing.

[mellow jazz continues] [nearby traffic as kids play and squeal] [jazz winds down to soft conversations nearby] JAMES HARDING: I had a connection to Doug through a mutual friend, and then she said, "Well, if you're going to San Francisco, look up my friend, Doug."

DOUG: James graduates from Yale, gets into Yale medical school, but decides he wants a year off.

JAMES: I remember going to the school.

It was a little bit after the earthquake in '89.

I remember watching this class that Doug was doing with 2nd graders.

[cheery music in old video] And I just remember having this feeling, this butterflies-in-the- stomach feeling.

I was just very excited.

DOUG: [on video] Nice, Willie.

DOUG: And at the end of the day he said, "Can I come back tomorrow?"

So, he just started coming, and he came back for almost a whole year.

He said, "I decided not to go to medical school.

Can I come back to school?"

[laughs] JAMES: Let's hear the...

I'm gonna call you the circle, the circle of strings.... JAMES: So, then the next year, I was basically teaching everything.

[sings along with melody on strings, xylophones] And stop!

You got the right time to enter in, but you did too many.

Do it again.

DOUG: And then in 1990, I got an invitation to teach in Salzburg, and Sofía was teaching in the summer course that I was teaching at.

SOFÍA LÓPEZ-IBOR: He was teaching in the morning, I was teaching in the afternoon, and there was one person that came to us and said, "You need to talk because it looks like you guys are doing the same thing."

I mean, not exactly the same material, but that person actually revealed that we had a lot in common.

DOUG: The girls can do Areira, then when it's time the boys come.

The girls can move back, and the boys come up.

SOFÍA: Perfect.

And then Doug came to me, and he said, "I think you are very good with middle school kids.

I'm thinking about writing a jazz book, and I need someone to cover my classes for six months while I finish my book.

Would you like to come?"

And I said, "Sure, why not?!"

And I never knew that that was going to turn into 25 years of my life.

[boisterous rhythms, on hand drums and cowbell] [kids sing "Funga Alafia"] TALIA GOODKIN: It's just so enviable that he got to find his soulmates as colleagues.

That relationship extends far outside the music room here.

DOUG: ♪ I greet you with my words ♪ ♪ I greet you with my heart.... ♪ JAMES: We're teaching the Orff-Schulwerk approach to music education.

[mellow music plays] This particular strand of Orff teaching is music from the composer's point of view.

[piano accompanies xylophones] Orff did say, "Let the children be their own composers."

SOFÍA: Excellent.

SOFÍA: What is important about the Orff approach is the way we are engaging the children with the musical ideas and the way they are improvising, composing, understanding.

[piano and xylophones in call and response] A lot of people think it is required to have this collection of instruments that we don't have in many places around the world, but there's other instruments.

And there's your body and there's objects, there's anything to play music.

[all clap in time with each other] KIDS: Yes.

DOUG: No.

KIDS: Yes.

DOUG: No.

KIDS: Yes.

DOUG: No, no.

[cheery tune on piano] JAMES: The really big foundation of Orff is just going back and forth between experiencing music with your body and then having that come out through an instrument.

I saw that in Doug's teaching.

There was that back and forth always, like music, movement, music, movement.

[kids all play in unison to Doug keeping time] DOUG: [on video] First one, and.... STUDENTS: Ta ta.... DOUG: When I was in college, I took a class called Music for Kids or something.

One day somebody said, "Oh, we have a guest teacher today," and his name was Avon Gillespie.

And he just comes in, and he just goes... motions us to take off our shoes.

Gets us gathered in a circle, and he starts going like this.

Not saying a word, just not saying a word.

We said, "What is he doing?

Okay, we have to figure out."

And then after we finally get this little pattern, and he goes, "Head and shoulders, baby, one, two, three.

Head and shoulders, baby...." And at the end of that class, maybe it was an hour long or something, it was like, "Well, that was interesting."

So, he was one of the first wave of Orff teachers.

Years later, Avon invited me to teach with him in Texas, and we taught together until he died in '89.

[chill jazz] JAMES: There was an initial generation of people that became kind of like the first pioneers of Orff-Schulwerk in the US and started teaching and bringing it into their school communities.

DOUG: I think the big thing that struck me about it was finally the sense that the learning took place in the group.

You weren't sitting in a practice room by yourself doing it.

[Doug sings Slovenian folk song, "Marko Ska e"] [xylophones repeat the melody] And it was through the ear, not through the eye.

You weren't reading things.

You were hearing, listening, responding.

And so, I think those are the radical tenets of the Orff approach that I was experiencing personally and feeling like, yeah!

[continues in Slovenian] Po zelenoj trati.... [xylophones match the melody] DOUG: Were you matching how quiet my voice was?

-No.

-Yes.

DOUG: Some people were.

-I was, I was.

[Doug sings with one xylophonist] [sings quieter, they play quieter] [sings with full voice, they play loudly] DOUG: All right.

KAREN GOODKIN: One thing he says over and over is so often in music classes, you sit in rows, and kids file in, and they sit, and they listen to somebody talk.

And he just gets them in there, makes a circle, and just starts a game.

It's less about talking about everything and a little bit more about doing and making music.

[they complete the song] [silence] DOUG: Make an X.

Put them down.

Hands in your lap.

Clap for yourselves!

SERINA: I think Doug's just a really creative person, and he wants students to be creative too.

I think he cares so much about students learning, and he wants us to have fun at the end of the day.

I think we always looked forward to it because he created that energy.

[students play different tunes] DOUG: 1, 2, 3 and.... [steady melody up the scale on one xylophone] [marimba finishes the melody] TALIA: Working for this many years, my dad could easily have his curriculum in a binder that says, "On Tuesday you do this and on Wednesday...." He knows what works, but it's always different.

It's always responsive.

It always changes according to the group of kids.

That goes back to finding what's special about each kid and nurturing that.

DOUG: I say high, and you say... CLASS: Low.

DOUG: I say fast, and you say... CLASS: Slow.

DOUG: I say yes, and you say... CLASS: No.

DOUG: I say stop, and you say... CLASS: Go.

[Doug claps and pats a slow rhythm] [all clap and pat in unison] DOUG: Are you impressed that I could make that up on the spot?

CLASS: Yeah!

-I was doing the exact opposite, like the hand motions.

DOUG: You were going?

-When you clapped, I patted.

When you patted, I clapped.

DOUG: And guess what?

In music, they're both right.

And, in fact, if you do that way, and I do the other way, it sounds really cool.

[faster clapping, patting rhythm] DOUG: Well, I say slow, and you say... CLASS: Fast.

DOUG: I say first, and you say... CLASS: Last.

DOUG: I say open, and you say... CLASS: Closed.

DOUG: I say fingers, and you say... CLASS: Toes.

DOUG: I say I eyes, and you say... CLASS: Nose.

[students and Doug laugh] DOUG: I say go, and you say... CLASS: Stop.

DOUG: I say Mom, and you say... CLASS: Dad.

-Pop.

Pop!

DOUG: Pop.

[all laugh] -Soda pop.

DOUG: Music is filled with opposites, and music is about going to the extreme of the opposites so that you can really express everything that there is to express.

If you always stay in the middle, you don't express too much.

DOUG: All right.

Carter, thanks for your idea.

[happy kids voices outside] [on video] ♪ Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream ♪ ♪ Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, ♪ ♪ life is but a dream ♪ DOUG: Group one.

♪ Row, row, row your boat ♪ DOUG: Group two.

♪ Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream ♪ DOUG: Group three.

♪ Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily ♪ DOUG: Group four.

[all sing at once in a round, overlapping] KAREN: Look at all these holes.

What do you do?

DOUG: You go like that.

KAREN: Oh, I see.

Okay.

I really wanna drink my coffee!

[laughs] [cool jazz with vibraphone lead] KAREN: My career as an art teacher has paralleled his career as a music teacher.

He started in '75, the year after I did.

We met because Doug and a friend of his from college came over to our house, and they were starting this choir singing this early Renaissance composer Ockeghem.

And I said, "Would it be okay if I tried this chorus?"

And so, I did, and so I got to know Doug, and we started hanging out.

And then, at the end of my first year at the San Francisco School, there was a donation of xylophones.

The teachers all looked at them and said, "What the heck do we do with these?"

I mean, nobody really was trained to use them.

So, someone came in to teach us how to use these instruments.

The guy teaching us was not very good, and I had invited Doug into the class.

At one of the nights, I think Doug just took over and started [laughs], started doing some stuff.

TERRY EDELI: It was in his music room that now is still, I mean, he has made that music room stay the same.

It's the only part of the school that's st ayed the same since the 1970s.

And it was in that space.

And people were really impressed with him, and it kind of just morphed organically into, "Maybe we need a music teacher."

[Calypso jazz] KAREN: We were really a ragtag kind of [laughs] place, and it all worked.

I don't know quite how it worked.

Maybe we were all a lot younger, we all had a lot more energy.

TERRY: We were a collective.

We were all almost like a family.

Some of the teachers were living together, like Doug and Karen, and Pamela and I worked until 6:00 or 7:00 every night.

It was our lives.

[trumpet, vibraphone shine in Calypso jazz] KAREN: We wanted kids to wanna come to school every day and be excited.

The same things that are wanted now by teachers, but back then, maybe we felt like we had a little more control over the habitat.

[laughs] [enthusiastic drumming] PAMELA MYERS: Doug was sort of the Pied Piper.

[applause] Whenever he's there, things are just a little more exciting, a little more fun.

[singing on video] The huge, huge gift Doug has brought to the school is the ceremony and the jo yfulness that ceremony brings.

KAREN: The celebrations and the community events would bring everybody together.

You can't really have a community unless you come together.

So, over the years, he's had his cookie jar contest and his Samba contest, and th en the plays were really big.

[recorder and drums play] ACTOR: We build great canoes!

PAMELA: Ceremonies give them something tangible they can hang onto, place their feelings on, express themselves.

It gives format to whatever is happening at that point.

KIDS: ♪ Samba Lelê.... ♪ TALIA: Every ceremony feel like these markers, for me, of time going by, ‘cause I felt them since I was a kid.

[cheery piano tune] KIDS: ♪ Side by side ♪ [drums join piano] KIDS: ♪ We ain't got a barrel of money ♪ ♪ Maybe we're ragged and funny ♪ ♪ But we travel along, singing a song ♪ ♪ Side by side.... ♪ DOLORES: Sometimes I think perhaps some people forget that music is such a deep, connecting, important part of life.

And when you leave school, yes, it's good to know how to read and write and do your math, but you wanna be happy!

And being with people and singing, it brings such joy, and it brings such connection if you go sing together.

ALL: ♪ Side by side!!!

♪ [music ends on a flourish, cheers and applause] [gentle birdsong, a light breeze] DOUG AND KIDS: ♪ We're goin' down the hall!

♪ [claps] ♪ Uh-uh, uh-uh, uh-uh!

♪ ♪ We're goin' down the hall!

♪ ♪ Uh-uh, uh-uh, uh-uh!

♪ DOUG: ♪ Stealing Poppop's glasses ♪ ♪ just to bring them home ♪ [toy rooster wails] ♪ Stealing Poppop's glasses just to bring them home ♪ [rooster wails] Hoo hoo, ha ha ha!

[rooster wails] Hoo hoo ha ha ha!

[rooster wails] ♪ Moo moo moo moo, moo-moo ha ha ha!

♪ [rooster wails] KAREN: I think he feels like he wants to sculpt what he leaves behind for kids.

[cheerful tune on mouth harp] TERRY: I would imagine he worries about the external influences, which are highly about technology and entrepreneurship, and winning [laughs] in this new world, like, somehow overrunning the more cooperative, collaborative, heartfelt sensibilities.

Without him there, I think the sc hool is more likely to shift.

[air rings through bottles, shakers shake] DOUG: Zadie, that was good!

When things are working well, they're working well for a reason.

And in music, when you got this good groove going, you don't randomly change it because they did something else at another school.

Or just say, "Oh, you've had that groove for a while, let's try something else."

No, this groove is killing.

We're all benefiting from it.

Don't just throw it out just because.

[squeaky toy squeals, pipes blow, rooster wails] Here's the game!

You're gonna move around with your bean bag, but.

Kepler!

Remember what happened last class?

If your beanbag falls off, you were out and you had to sit down?

So, now I have a new rule.

If you're moving around, and it falls off, you do have to freeze, but you can get back in the game if somebody else puts it on your head.

[Bach's Prelude in C Major] Hannah, beautiful.

-[giggles] Dylan, leave it down.

You can't pick up your own.

[laughter] [tender Bach melody continues on piano] DOUG: The bean bag game is a ph ysical enactment of the moral value that you're hoping to nourish in the children.

[happy giggling] What you see is who's noticing that kids need help, because there are plenty of people in this world that don't notice.

Get your arms out.

[Petzhold's Minuet in G Minor on piano] If they do notice, how do they respond?

Dylan, beautiful job.

Then, if you wanna talk about these values, you have something to refer to.

Nice, Leo.

-Ha!

-That's it.

You have to sit.

[piano drifts out as kids chatter] DOUG: ♪ Old king glory of the mountain ♪ ♪ The mountain was so high, it nearly touched the sky ♪ ♪ The first one, the second one.... ♪ ♪ So so mi mi re do ♪ ♪ So so mi mi re do ♪ Back to the beginning.

♪ Do.... ♪ Last thing, before we get instruments is on the board here, can you see over into the corner, are these rhythms: tas and ta-tes.

So, everybody, can you read this with me?

This is ta, that's ta-te, those are rests.

So, read it with me.

ALL: Ta, ta, ta-te, ta.

SERINA: What I've learned about music is that it's not just doing it right or something, it's just doing it at all, and kind of engaging in any way is music.

[clapping] DOUG: No.

Yeah!

It's boom, boom, ta-te, ta.

Like that.

One, two, here you go.

[clap in rhythm] SERINA: Music isn't just a certain technical thing, it's this whole world where you can engage and connect and be together and perform together and practice together.

DOUG: Ta, ta ta.

[room filled with claps and giggles] SERINA: It's a community that's not just about being technical and doing it right.

[clapping, happy voices] [drums play as Doug sings melody] JOEL: Everybody in the music department was very patient because there are many students that learn very differently.

DOUG: Here we go, Joel!

One, two, only him.

[Doug sings melody as he and Joel play it] JOEL: Depending on the connection that you have with a teacher, you fall in love with what you do.

And I don't just like the class, I also love what I do and love who taught me all of this.

DOUG: Sing with him.

[Doug sings along with mallets] [bamboo rattles as Joel plays xylophone] DOUG: Here we go!

SERINA: The music teachers re ally wanted to have everybody join into music as much as possible, and everybody, because of that, found a love of music in one way or another.

Everybody connected in a different way.

DOUG: Get ready.

Ta ta ta ta, ta-te!

[Philippine melody continues] Annnnnd, hold!

All right.

For 20 minutes, that's pretty good.

DOUG: Are you ready?

Ready, one, two, three!

[delighted squeals and yells] [laughter] DOUG: We don't really have the long class tomorrow because of the Latinx celebration, so the goal is to go through everything you need to know for the Intery Mintery part, because we have no music class before Halloween.

So, it's like, we have a dress rehearsal, that's it.

One, two, three.

[spooky melody on piano] Use your arms, cross, and bouncing, bouncing.

Nice bouncing, Naomi.

JAMES: Intery Mintery is our Halloween ritual.

It's not really a performance.

It's not a show.

[spooky song continues as kids whoop] DOUG: Sofía has a suggestion for you.

SOFÍA: With this "ooh, ooh," I see a lot of people doing different things.

The kids come in August, and they're saying, "When are we starting to do the Halloween stuff?"

They're just obsessed with it.

So, if you see Doug and I doing this.... [Doug and Sofía sing a slow melody] DOUG: Left foot.

Doo doo.

SOFÍA: You see this action?

JAMES: Having each class in the elementary be responsible for a different aspect of the performance, that's a tradition at our school.

[recorder and xylophones play] [dramatic cymbal crash as melody continues] SOFÍA: There is a cycle where the children know that in 1st grade, I'm doing this, but then in 2nd grade, but then in 3rd grade.

And then they can look forward and backwards again.

The nose.

[suspenseful drum roll, shakers rattle] The legs.

[goat hooves clatter] [instruments inch up the scale] It was created by Doug and then transported into the class by the three of us.

ALL: ♪ Apple seed and apple thorn ♪ ♪ Wire, briar, timberlock.... ♪ JAMES: He describes it as something that he was inspired by his mentor, Avon Gillespie, who did some kind of mystical chanting thing as part of a workshop with adults.

Doug found a nursery rhyme that he felt like was kind of mysterious and then adapted that.

[music grows more mysterious, kids sing "Intery Mintery"] DOUG: Welcome to the annual 1st through 5th grade ritual enactment of Intery...Mintery.

[kids' voices build in a round with clapping] ♪ Three geese in a flock ♪ ♪ Wire, briar, timberlock ♪ [round continues, overlapping voices with a spooky tune] [recorders play a suspenseful melody] SOFÍA: I think that it's one of his favorites because of the mystery, because of this momentum of seeing 100-something kids just together, building that moment of attention.

[drums, xylophones tiptoe through the melody] [cymbal rings out as melody continues] [music grows loud, tense with bagpipe solo] [instruments build, kids whoop] [rousing cheers and applause as music winds down] KID 1: The xylophones and that stuff were kind of creepy, like the, “bong bong bong bong bum bum bum.” KID 2: It was cool because we were in the show, and we also got to watch another performance.

KID 3: In 4th grade, it's really cool because we get to do the dancing, and it's also really cool ‘cause it's Doug's last year.

I also really like the bagpipe that Doug plays.

[cheers, applause continue, filling the space] [kids chatting] DOUG: Raffee?

I'm gonna give you the words tomorrow for your song.

RAFFEE: Aw, okay.

-Could you sign me out?

DOUG: I can!

-Thank you.

TALIA: My dad, he is bound by tradition and things staying the same, and change can be really hard for him.

He puts his entire heart into what he does and leaves it there, quivering on the table at all times, which has its fabulous pros and some hard cons at the same time.

[the Goldberg Variations on piano] [classical music continues, emotions growing] [same song continues, melody growing in speed and energy] [hums softly for a bit with music] [piano continues as basketball bounces, kids laugh] [music gently ends] SOFÍA: Twelve sides, a shape with twelve sides.

Diego, ¡Empiezas!

Un, dos.

Un, dos, tres, y!

ALL: [sing in Spanish about rhomboids and trapezoids] -Pentagon.

-Sphere.

-Circle.

-Square.

ALL: [sing in Spanish about rhomboids and trapezoids] -Circle!

SOFÍA: I remember my experiences growing up in Madrid, seeing myself in a circle with a hand drum, where there were 24 other girls playing a hand drum.

Everybody, “boom, boom, boom-boom, boom, boom, boom, boom-boom.” And then thinking, I'm in heaven right now.

[slow music on marimba, woman singing] SOFÍA: I wanted to give you another idea in here.

When you have your shape, don't let your shape be lazy.

This is a lazy shape, right?

Try to really find a focus.

You have parents that come to you, and they say, "Oh, my child is so musical.

Have you noticed?"

And the kid is a three-year-old or a four-year-old, and I just wanna say, "Oh, yes, I have noticed it.

They are such a good musician, such a good dancer."

The secret is that every single one of them are!

They are all good musicians.

They're all good dancers.

They all have ways of waving a scarf and telling you, "Here I am."

SOFÍA: Look.

Actually, guess what?

You have right here, I see a kite.

This is the tail of the kite.

Follow Margaret, one, two, go.

Yeah!

They have it in them.

¡Super bonito!

We are facilitators that are trying to bring those things out.

Now, girls, girls.

You need speed.

[claps] Go!

KID: I'm waiting!

Get it, Sophie!

SOFÍA: Annnnnd stop.

Perfect.

KID: Stop.

[smooth jazz] DOUG: Three, two, one.

Let's do one where we wave.

Three, two, one.

JAMES: So, Doug's gonna introduce it in the flex room, a great piece from the Philippines.

Meanwhile, Sofía's gonna introduce to the 7th graders... JAMES: One thing that I've been thinking about this year a lot is just how much Doug's witnessing of my work has fed me over the years.

That's huge to have someone that you respect that much working in your field, right there, witnessing what you do.

And that's something that both Sofía and I will not have.

We won't have his particular form of witnessing us and supporting us, and that's gonna be a big loss.

DOUG: So, time is running.

We have less than a half hour, and I'm nervous about time.

JAMES: Yeah.

DOUG: So, let's have the 8th and 6th.... [slow plucking and sweeping across Chinese zither] [they continue "Dance of the Yi People"] JAMES: Here comes the pipa part.

And.... [all instruments join a slow, rolling melody] JOSÉ: In 6th grade we had this thing where there was this little hat.

Someone would choose this little piece of paper, and it had a country in the world.

And then whatever that country, their music, we learned about their music, their culture, and then we played pieces from that place.

[slow melody continues] Learning culture is something you feel like you would only learn in Humanities class or Social Studies.

But when I learned it in music, it just seemed really cool to me.

[piano accompanies xylophones on "Mo Betta Blues"] DOUG: With the drums.

And...boo da do da doo.

JAQUEZ JORDAN: Music class was fun for me.

I like creating things, and if you can do that by music, by film, by drawing, or whatever, it releases a happy emotion within me.

The music class for me was allowing me to be myself, be able to create something, and you're doing it at such a young age, so it kind of helps you figure out what you're gonna do in the future.

Get a little life perspective.

[music continues] DOUG: Eva and Sean!

CHRISTINA ZANFAGNA: Music class was always what I would look forward to throughout the day.

I would just be waiting patiently [laughs] in History or English to get there.

And something that has become a life skill outside of music is improvisation.

‘Cause improvisation is not just a musical activity.

I mean, it's how you move through life.

["Mo Betta Blues" continues] [students improvise on musical theme] This sense of improvisation that we were encouraged to practice in the midst of not knowing what comes next, that ability is, I think, really empowering as a young person, to feel like you can navigate unknown waters.

[hand drums lead in the band in "La Vida es un Carnaval"] [song ends, children start chatting] SOFÍA: People, what's wrong with me?

What's wrong with me?

[sings melody] KID: You're staring at your feet!

SOFÍA: Yeah!!!

Do you see those words, those little clouds up there?

That's where you have to be looking at.

Okay?

Yeah?

JAMES: Look up.

SOFÍA: Go back.

Go back, and we'll do it from the top.

JAMES: The National Conference fo r the American Orff-Schulwerk Association happens every year.

They try to alternate different regions.

Salt Lake City was the closest it was gonna be to the West Coast for a long time.

SOFÍA: We always have had some kind of a presence as a performing group in these Orff conferences.

JAMES: So, we decided we wanted to do a middle school group for Salt Lake City.

Then we made the decision, do we make it a small precision group of 10, or do we just say, “Anyone who wants to come, sign up!” And so, we decided to do it that way.

[salsa continues] [instruments pause] SOFÍA: Two, three, and... JOEL: ♪ Todo aquel que piense que ♪ ♪ la vida siempre es desigual ♪ ♪ Tiene que saber que no es así Que la vida es una hermosura ♪ JOEL: I've always liked singing, but I don't think I ever did it in front of people.

When I was told, "Do you want to sing this song... and in Spanish?"

I was like, okay.

I'm not only singing, I'm also gonna share my culture, who I am, part of my identity.

So, it was very unique for me.

Sofía encouraged me, telling me, "You're doing this, and you're gonna show us what you're able to do."

[salsa continues] ¡Vamos!

SOFÍA: Annnnnd stop!

[Doug sings and plays Ghanian song "Wanyema"] SERINA: Certain pieces I would be able to play flute in if it needed a flute, and then other pieces, somebody else might be better at singing, so they would sing.

So, it was kind of like a group effort.

And we all had the skills, and we just put them together to make all the numbers happen.

[full band plays "Wanyema," upbeat, cheery melody] DOUG: Last time!

[last note echoes in the quiet room] [applause and cheers start slowly and build] [traffic rushes, horns honk near and far] [many conversations at once, arriving elevator dings] -I woke up at 5:45.

-3:15 exactly.

[voices chatting happily all around] [claps, slaps, and counting games] [choir sings to xylophone] SHIRLEY SALMON: Orff-Schulwerk is not taking the original models that Carl Orff and Gunild Keetman wrote and transposing them to Korea or the United States or France, but looking at the culture of each country.

So, if we take the idea of Orff-Schulwerk, say, to France, you would need to be looking at the rhymes and the games, the pieces that children or people have in France, and not just translating the German models.

JAMES: And I actually asked kids as they listened to think about what's their favorite, A or B, as you listen to this, ‘cause there's so much variety in the way he treats it.

It's still just this all the way through.

MASUMI HAYASHI-SMITH: The biggest thing that I'm taking from this experience is just seeing how teachers approach their students and approach the material.

There's so much creativity that they have, and 100% I can take that and bring that to my school.

They don't want me to pick up some cookie-cutter idea and import it into my life and do it again.

They want me to look at what's around me, what speaks to me, and then create my own thing.

SOFÍA: So, you can find elemental music, not only in the music of Carl Orff, but you can find it in many other composers.

How do you bring it to the students so that they can understand it and they can use it to dance, to recompose, and to do, to integrate the arts?

[crowds all talking, xylophone nearby plays a boisterous tune] [roomful of singing voices] DOUG: So, first change.

ALL: ♪ Mi re, mi mi re do ♪ ♪ Mi re, mi mi re do ♪ DOUG: A lot of the theme of today is simple music, three, four notes, great musical effects, right?

Uh, uh, uh, hey!

[energetic Ghanaian song, "Kanbile" on mallets] Hey!

[more percussion and winds join the tune] Bom bom!

Ending, here we go.

Short.

Bom bom bom dah dah dum!

[extra single note plays after unified finish] Let's do the end again.

One, two, three, and.

Bah bah bah dah dah dum!

Get ready.

[laughter] One, two, three, and.

Bah bah bah dah dah dum!

[nothing but resonating last note] That's what I'm talking about.

All right!

[clangs cowbell happily] DOUG: I do this thing called the Secret Song, which is, I just have five-year-olds come in, and I put xylophones around.

And I tell them that inside these bars of woods is a hidden, a secret song, and it's waiting for them.

And they have to find it.

All right?

And all they have to do is explore it with their hands, listen with their ears, remember with their mind— three things—and then come back and share it.

And every single kid comes back with something musical and coherent.

Because guess what?

News flash: Kids are extraordinary musical beings, right?

And often they will come up with much better things if the adult just leaves them alone.

And so, a lot of it is to give them the structures and the skills and the techniques that they need, but it's also to give them the time and space to just figure stuff out.

[many conversations] JOSÉ: That is my first time th at I've ever been on a plane.

And just knowing I was gonna share it with a bunch of people and everybody that I knew and my friends, it helped me to bond more, and I was really excited to perform.

I got that feeling that, oh, my God.

A bunch of people are gonna see this, and I just got that confidence.

And I just went out there and just played my heart out.

[warming up on piano] SOFÍA: Are you excited?

STUDENT: I'm nervous.

SOFÍA: No, I'm so excited.

DOUG: All right, ladies and gentlemen.

We are on in 15 minutes.

[kids murmur] So, that is really exciting.

Sometimes people don't think kids could do what you guys are about to do, and you're there to prove them wrong.

In other words, you're gonna play music that is every bit as high-quality and professional and exciting and fun to watch and well-played as adults and sometimes even more so, right?

[crowds chat in the auditorium, music playing nearby] ANNOUNCER: Please help us welcome the San Francisco School.

[cheers, applause] [cowbell, drums keep time to Balinese-inspired chant] [crowds whoops to energetic Ghanian rhythms] [all sing to fast, cheery song, "Wanyema] [slow melody on strings and vibraphones, "Palladio"] [cheery Brazilian folk song, "Areia," singing, drums, guitar] [feet stamp] ALL: Hey!

[upbeat salsa tune: "La Vida es un Carnaval"] [instruments fade, make space for vocals] [crowd cheers] ♪ Y todo aquel que piense que ♪ ♪ la vida es desigual Tiene que saber que no es así ♪ ♪ Que la vida es una hermosura, hay que vivirla ♪ ♪ Ay, no hay que llorar (No hay que llorar) ♪ ♪ Y es más bello vivir cantando Oh-oh-oh ♪ JOEL: ¡Azúcar!

[songs ends on a flourish, crowd cheers] [whistles, whoops, applause] [kids calling out on the playground as traffic roars] [bowl echoes, chiming note reverberating] [a second note rings out long, echoes] [slow taps on the gong bring low, slow notes] [light giggling, mostly silence] [bells ring and tinkle] DOUG: Happy New Year!

Happy New Year.

Happy 2020.

Happy 2020.

[bells ring, fill the room] SOFÍA AND STUDENTS: Taaaaa, ta, ta-ke-ta-ke-ta-te-ta-te-taa.

Taa.

STUDENTS: Ta.

Ta.

Ta-te.

[laughter] KID: Bye.

SOFÍA: Good work, my friends!

KID: See ya.

JAMES: The youngest daughter came down with her basket.

♪ Draw me a bucket of wa-ater ♪ She started to scoop the river water.

And then Anansi's family stood up, and they played!

And she danced.

[boisterous drumming] Ashay!

Asho!

Ashay!

Shake shake shake!

Ashay!

Asho!

Ashay!

Shake shake shake!

[claps and slaps in time] ALL: Hey!

JAMES: And they hid, and she fell down, exhausted.

[mellow music] DOUG: You can open this world to the kids through improvisation.

What you can do is make a little harmonic pattern with one and five.

KAREN: With Doug retiring, I think he'll stay plenty busy.

I'm sure he'll write more books, and I'm sure the teaching that they do out in the world will continue as long as this virus [laughing] gets under control.

I mean, they were having a meeting here last night and saying, "Wow, maybe the world is changing, that we can't really plan to do a workshop somewhere anymore."

It's kind of, it's a little dicier.

[slow acoustic guitar] DOUG: First time I heard of coronavirus was from James, who was in China.

JAMES: In China, I remember ve ry vividly, I'd just finished my last course that I taught.

I was heading back from Guangzhou to Shanghai.

And I was still in the hotel in Guangzhou, and I got this little text from a friend saying, "Watch out for coronavirus!"

And I was like, ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha.

I got back on the 25th of January.

They weren't sure if they should let me back in the school or not.

And then they said, "Yeah, it's fine."

And then the very next day, the CDC guidelines totally changed.

SOFÍA: I was getting in formation from many different countries at the same time.

Everybody in Spain was kind of like, “They're closing schools, they're closing schools, they're gonna do it right now”" And I was really worried about it.

[slow, pensive acoustic guitar] DOUG: The first serious moment was when I was gonna be in Singapore for two weeks and then go to Hong Kong, and then it's when Hong Kong contacted me and said, "You can't come."

But even then, I think, the very first directive was, “We'll close for two weeks.” DOUG: All right, so, this is the last chance we'll get to play together for the foreseeable future, hopefully just a week.

STUDENTS: No!

Oh god!

DOUG: Just a week.

But meanwhile, the beat goes on at home, and it's interesting, thinking about, you know, what for you.... SERINA: I just thought it was really crazy.

I remember this one day, actually, we were sitting in music class on the risers, and this one kid in our class was joking.

He was like, "Yeah, guys.

What if we graduate online?

That would be crazy."

And we were like, "Don't say that.

You're kidding."

[music rises, drumroll builds] [final beat on snare, class doesn't stop playing] DOUG: You were not watching Luca.

Watch him!

[kids moan] Come on, people.

It's the last time we're gonna have for a while.

It has to be good.

Freeze at the end!

[Doug leads students to end of song] Watch Luca.

Watch him.

[all roll, slow, stop] [long reverberation, then silence] DOUG: I just have eight words for you.

Let me count.

-I will miss you.

-So much.

DOUG: Yeah, eight words.

Here it is.

You ready?

-You are the best class.

DOUG: I love working with you.

I love you.

-Awwwww!

-We'll miss you, and I hope we come back to school to have music class.

DOUG: All right, so you guys, I'll miss you next week.

And listen to a lot of jazz, watch videos, and be safe.

Wash your hands.

-I'm gonna wash hands right now.

DOUG: Yeah, wash your hands now.

We disinfected the mallets, but still.

-Thank you, Doug!!!

DOUG: Thank you.

All right.

[pensive music] [pensive music continues] [breeze rustles palm, pensive music continues] [music gently fades into the breeze] [silence] Hello, 4th graders!

Remember me?

I really miss you guys, but music can go on.

So, I'm giving you a little, your favorite instrument, recorder lesson!

And let's see.

I think I need to move back a little bit.

Here's how it's gonna work.

I'm gonna give you some notes, and just like a real class.

Of course, you need your recorder, and we'll do a little echo.

So, I play a little something, and you play back.

And of course, I can't hear you, but.... DOUG: [on phone] Everybody that I know in the world right now, and that's people in 50 different countries, is sheltered down.

That's never happened in the history of humanity.

I mean, that's extraordinary.

G. And this one?

A.

And this one?

B.

So, that's what we'll start with.

So just echo here.

If I go.... DOUG: [on phone] What's happened is that I've had to learn six different technologies in two weeks.

So, there's ParentSquare, there's Google Drive, there's Schoology, there's Google Meet, there's Zoom, there's Loom, there's Flipgrid, there's Seesaw.

I mean, that's a big list!

And this has never been a strong suit.

Okay, we have lesson #2, and this is the response to the A section.

And we'll take a little while to do that.

[on phone] I still, by the way, hope that school could possibly open May 1st.

I still hope I could possibly still finish the year and teach classes and have a retirement party.

But it's as likely that it won't happen as it is that it will.

So, either way is just what I have to accept.

[somber music] JAMES: Hello, crickets.

“You mean, hello, wickets!” Oh, the elephant's back for today's class.

SOFÍA: Five green dragons making such a roar.

One danced away, and then they were four.

JAMES: With this next one, it's showing you the rhythm of the words: ta ta ta-te ta.

Ta-te-ta-te-ta-te-ta.

JAMES: The essential activity of what we are trying to do is impossible under these conditions.

Not being together physically and not having the synchronicity of sound, all that stuff prevents a huge amount of what we're normally focusing on and giving kids as an experience.

[banjo plays over Zoom] It destroys music making in time with other people.

[jaunty tune on banjo plays over computer] And the whole way of the group working together and really experiencing the power of being musical together was kind of impossible.

For the next activities, see if you can get your own glasses that have two different sounds, high and low.

So, I'll go first, and then I'll leave some space for you to echo.

[James clinks spoon against glasses, high and lower pitch] [student clinks glasses] Okay, now I'm gonna show you some notation.

JOSÉ: On screen everyone just looks different.

Everybody's just there.

It's not like a real experience to say when you're in a classroom, and you can see everybody.

You can see everybody now ‘cause everybody's in their own little squares, but in person, it just feels much more, I don't know, exciting.

You're bonding.

You're building up your friendship even more than if you were just on a screen.

DOUG: Okay, you guys.

I'm gonna leave you there until next week.

STUDENT: Okay.

SOFÍA: El tren chookoo chookoo chookoo is a really, really good song for you to actually try to play at home.

You can find some very...common objects to play that song.

I can try to play, for example, with two books on my bookshelf.

♪ El tren chookoo chookoo chookoo.... ♪ [guitar plays longingly] SOFÍA: When you are at home filming a class with kids, so you're doing your small little video where you're showing something to the preschoolers, and the preschoolers are not right there, you immediately become an entertainer.

Sometimes you become a little bit like a clown, and I hate that, because the work that we do is not a show.

In your package, you might find a paper like this.

I was in pain seeing that what I am doing... became something else.

♪ Five green dragons making such a roar ♪ I am still singing the songs, I'm showing the same material, I'm using the same kind of ideas, the same method, the same...but this is not who I am.

I'm missing half of who I am, because who I am as a teacher is down there in the circle with me.

Teaching is not about me.

It's about them.

And they're far away, and I don't see them.

I can't smell them.

I didn't untie a shoe.

I didn't ask them to put a sweater [laughing] in the corner before coming to my circle.

I am.... Now, I am in front of a screen.

I'm an entertainer.

And this was extremely hard.

Please don't forget to send me a photo if you make a dragon.

That would be so great to get some photos from you with your dragons or even singing my dragon song.

We had to pull ourselves out of a situation, reach out to still work with this very strong concept of communication that is essential to who we are.

MAIA: Hi, Sofía.

It's Maia, and I'm gonna play this song.

[sings "El Tren Chuga", shaking beans in the jar, hitting drum] DOUG: I'm gonna play G G A B B, and you echo me.

And just for fun, let's try playing all together unmuted.

[recorder notes overlap] DOUG: I did try some recorder things at the beginning, and that was hilarious, because first of all, some kids, "I can't find my recorder!"

Then another kid, "I don't have a recorder, but I have a guitar.

Can I do it on guitar?"

[chuckles] And then it was one kid said, "My mom doesn't want me to play recorder when we're in the house together."

[delighted laugh] Ah, Sasha, you have an alto recorder!

SASHA: Yeah.

DOUG: Okay, that makes it in a different key, but that's okay.

It'll be interesting.

[Doug sings through laptop speakers] JAMES: That whole improvisational spirit of working within limits and finding what's the human way through no matter what the conditions are, that definitely came through in what happened this spring.

-This is my instrument, as you can see.

It's made out a cup, a CD, and some rubber bands and a string.

[instrument wooshes through the air] -Hello.

This is my table choreography assignment thing.

And I have my dad with me.

He's right there.

And I'm gonna do this.

Yeah.

[tapping out rhythms on glass, table, and bowl] JAMES: What I felt was really important from our program in preschool was movement.

At the very beginning, I asked the 5th graders, I said, "Fifth graders, I wanna make a video for little three-year-olds to inspire them to move expressively and move to music."

And they loved doing that assignment.

DOUG: I did a whole little lesson on teaching eighth notes and quarter notes with cups and kitchen instruments.

We did fun things with kitchen instruments.

[maraca rings out on bowls] MOM: [chuckles] That sounds good.

DOUG: The 8th grade, I gave them a jazz project based on a musician of their choice.

And I said, "So, I want to know their biography, but I don't want just download.

I want you to pick one aspect of their biography and comment on it."

I was working!

[laughs] DOUG: Open your hands really slowly, and it'll look like a flower blooming.

Shhhhh.

KID: Wow, it is blooming.

JAMES: This situation, it's such a crisis that some of the biases around what's important and what's less important for education, I think, show themselves.

And even in the San Francisco School, but I think definitely in big school systems.

SOFÍA: ♪ Bee, bee, bumble bee ♪ A lot of music teachers are suffering from this idea that music could become optional for the kids.

JAMES: Either clap it or play it on your instrument.

We had to keep arguing a little bit.

Like, "Actually, this is really important for kids."

And they've listened.

It's not just an extra burden.

It's something that feeds them in a different way.

DOUG AND KIDS: ♪ Skinnama- -rink-a-dink-a-dink, ♪ ♪ skinnama-rink-a-doo ♪ JAMES: Part of the process was honing in on what things we felt good and satisfied with in this weird new setup and prioritizing that.

So, Doug really wanted to keep this connection of live singing with kids.

He wanted to maintain that connection, and he was really good at doing it.

[plays a dramatic intro on piano] DOUG: Welcome to Friday afternoon!

[chuckles] It's been a tiring week.

[continues on piano] SOFÍA: We identified that singing unifies the school in so many different ways, and we were missing it.

We were missing those moments where the three of us are in the three chairs in front of the kids, just having fun and communicating through music.

DOUG AND KID: ♪ And start all over again!

♪ JAMES: We hit upon this idea of making it a live stream on Friday afternoons, and it turned into, we started talking about it like it was our “Prairie Home Companion” radio show.

SOFÍA: ♪ It's a beautiful day today!

♪ DOUG: ♪ It's a beautiful day today!

♪ SOFÍA: ♪ And I think.... ♪ We really started just having fun with each other, appreciating each other.

It was very, very sweet.

DOUG: So, can you guys hear me?

[laughs] When I go like that, you have to do the word right then.

So, if I go like this...

KID: What's so funny?

DOUG: "Oh, my aunt," you do it right then.

JAMES: Oh, my aunt!

DOUG: Yeah, exactly.

All right, try it again.

[laughs] JAMES: I wonder if this is gonna work.

DOUG: We're gonna make this work, people.

It's too hard to know what the timing is until you've done this.

One more time!

♪ Oh, my aunt came back ♪ KIDS: ♪ Oh, my aunt came back ♪ -♪ From old Japan ♪ -♪ From old Japan ♪ DOUG: For me to see those kids' faces, for them to see me, for it to have some kind of interaction, it's actually astounding how far that goes.

All right.

The spirit and the need for that connection is so strong that even in these most adverse mediated things behind these screens, it still comes through somehow.

JAMES: We love you.

Have a great weekend.

SOFÍA: ¡Adiós, amígos!

¡Adiós!

[rubber rooster wails] DOUG: ¡Hasta la próxima!

See you.

Keep singing.

[gas stove flames hiss] DOUG: Karen, did you end up getting any bok choy?

KAREN: I did.

It's in the drawer.

DOUG: Okay.

[kettle starts to whistle] [somber solo piano music] DOUG: [on phone] There's a lot that's gonna come up when we really feel the full impact of what's happened here.

There's a lot of grief that is, right now, just being held under the surface ‘cause we just have to get by.

[somber music continues] I have this really silly photo that somebody took of me teaching preschoolers.

I have a plate on my head, and the kids around me all have paper plates on their head.

I just thought, I'm gonna put that on Facebook, and my caption was, "I miss teaching this way."

It struck some nerve and some chord where people used it as an opportunity to share their grief about how much they were missing the human connection that got them into teaching and sustains them.

I think this is probably gonna be too hot for a while though.

[somber music fades] DOUG: [through laptop] I'm gonna play one of these songs on the piano.

If you can recognize the tune, put a check next to that song.

And then I'll ask you to raise your hand, and I'll ask you to guess what song I was playing.

This is step one.

Are you ready?

Watch.

Here we go.

It became clear that it was gonna be a little bit longer.

And then it finally became clear: that's it for the year.

And that is a deep sadness, that we did not complete our work with a final concert together.

JAMES: I've often felt of it as like this huge smoke bomb that went off, and we're all like, "Hello!

Hello!

Are you still there?!

Oh, I can hear you."

And then it's all gonna settle.

And people will be like, "There used to be this amazing teacher at the center of the school who's not here anymore."

[tender music] DOUG: If I count up the losses, there's nine or 10 things that were part of this cycle that I had lived just about every year of those 45 years.

And for a year and a half, I've been anticipating both the delight and the sorrow of, this is the last one.

And it's irrecoverable.

SOFÍA: I was hoping that this was going to be just a period where we were gonna be at home and then that, immediately, we could just organize a couple of things that were meaningful to him, but I don't think not only to him.

It was important to me to have those moments with someone that is my friend, my colleague... and one of the most important people in my life.

JAMES: One thing that we all were thinking about was the last day of school ceremony an d how much that would just be meaningful to have Doug be le ading that for the last time.

We originally planned that all three of us would be in the music room together.

And then we could tell, in the morning of, that they were probably not gonna allow any of us to be in the music room.

STEVE: Hi, everybody, both folks that are in this G Meet and folks that are joining us on the live stream from.... SOFÍA: So finally, we had to negotiate hard to get just Doug permission to be in the music room one more time, playing the piano, and just feeling himself in that particular space.

STEVE: I'm gonna turn it back over to you, Doug.

Thanks.

DOUG: Well, what other way to start than?

[starts jazzy "Side by Side" on piano] I wanna hear you through the mute.

Keep it muted, but I'm gonna hear you.

♪ Ain't got a barrel of money ♪ ♪ Maybe we're ragged and funny ♪ ♪ Travel along, singing a song ♪ ♪ Side by side.... ♪ SOFÍA: That moment of solitude of Doug in the music room is symbolic in many ways.

DOUG: ♪ trouble and sorrow ♪ Hope not!

SOFÍA: James and I spoke about this poem by Antonio Machado.

[recites in Spanish] So, this talks about somebody that is walking.

And then, while you're walking, you're making a pathway, right?

And...but this person is walking alone.

Even though Doug has always had his colleagues and his friends, at the end, he was like this person in the distance, you know, still making a pathway.

DOUG: So, for all the people leaving, for all the people staying, let's sing— put your hands here, put your hands here— our "Skinnama-rink" song.

Instead of, "I love you," let's sing, "We love you."

♪ Skinnama-rink-a-dink-a-dink, skinnama-rink-a-doo, ♪ ♪ we love you ♪ Are you pointing?

♪ Skinnama-rink- a-dink.... ♪ DOUG: It was after it was over that I sat alone in that music room.

[voice soft and shaking] And...yeah.

I let it go.

I let it out.

'Cause that's a sacred place.

Yeah.

That's where... yeah, that's where so much of that happened, you know?

[distorted sound of Bach Prelude in C Major piano over Zoom] [ballad played live, full and rich on grand piano] [ballad continues, tenderly flowing] [ballad slows, quiets, then builds gently again] [music slows to an end, echoes] [a light breeze, happy kids' voices nearby] [footsteps crunch along the trail, birds sing] [Doug and others singing call and response] ♪ Gonna build me a mountain From a little hill ♪ ♪ Gonna build me a mountain At least I hope I will.... ♪ JAMES: His shifting into retirement is things like singing time with his neighbors.

DOUG: ♪ One more step toward freedom!

♪ JAMES: And then he's doing this alumni singing time.

♪ Heart and soul.... ♪ JAMES: He's teaching workshops online for hundreds of people in many countries.

DOUG: ...everything we're doing with these xylophones... JAMES: He's busier than ever.

DOUG: ...You can do it with voices, you could do with ukuleles and so on.... [mellow jazz] [jazz continues, families chatting] SOFÍA: Music is an art and is an expressive way of being that belongs to everybody.

Music, visual arts, dancing, they belong to everybody.

They belong to every culture.

[Latin jazz continues] It's going to be a challenge, but I am ready.

I am ready to try to overcome all these fears that I have.

And I'm ready to try to explore how to become a new teacher, adapting to these hard conditions.

[Latin jazz builds in energy] [claps, stamps, and chants echo and fill the hall] DOUG: Well, this is the first time that I have gotten to teach with these two colleagues since 2019.

It really feels nice.

And at school, we always taught 6th grade.

JAMES: There is no perfect ending of this.

If Doug is thinking of the perfect endings, which I think he actually is, there is no perfect ending for this.

It's so huge.

It's impossible to encapsulate and summarize and say, "Check."

It's an ongoing life's work.

I don't think any ceremony would do it justice.

[Doug and Sofía harmonize and clap] [boisterous cheers and whoops] DOUG: The other day, Talia sa id, "Are you just heartbroken and really sad about the way you're ending school?"

And I said, "Do I look heartbroken?"

And she said, "No, you actually don't."

And I said, "You know what?

If I stop and think about it and imagine what I wanted it to be and what it is, yes, I am heartbroken.

But I don't have time to do that."

And I think part of it is ‘cause I'm just so busy doing the next thing.

And the next thing is bringing me so much pleasure that, right now, it's not a big deal.

Remember, in spite of everything that's going on, or maybe even more because of everything that's going on, ♪ we're so glad we're here!

♪ [all join singing and clapping] ♪ We're so glad we're here ♪ ♪ We're so glad we're here, to sing this song!

♪ ♪ (well, singing this song) ♪ ♪ We're so glad we're here We're so glad we're here ♪ ♪ We're so glad we're here, to sing this song ♪ ♪ Well, love brought us here, and love brought us here ♪ ♪ You know, love brought us here to sing this song!

♪ ♪ (Whoa, whoa, whoa) Love brought us here ♪ ♪ Oh, love brought us here ♪ ♪ Oh, love brought us here to sing this song.... ♪ [singing fades into the soft breeze] [Calypso jazz]