INTRODUCTION
In July, 2007, I wrote ten environmental songs at the suggestion of my friends, Maris Sidenstecker II and her mother, Maris Sidenstecker I. They founded Save the Whales, a non-profit educational organization, in 1977 when Maris II was 14 years old. We decided to produce a CD that would help children learn how to protect and heal our planet, a CD that would show them how all of life is inter-connected. These 14 songs are the result of our efforts. For more information on their wonderful work, and to order your copy of the CD they produced, you may go to www.savethewhales.org.
It is widely accepted by educators that music helps children learn. Unlike other academic subjects, music engages both the left and right brain hemispheres and helps them communicate across the corpus callosum, the midline of the brain. Because of the need to make budget cuts, many school districts have taken music programs out of their schools, leaving children without the wonderful resources of classical and folk music which promote balanced learning on both sides of the brain.
SONGS TO HEAL OUR PLANET not only offer constructive ways to help our planet, but they also help remedy the lack of music in the schools. Teachers with no musical training can play the CD as their students sing with it and learn the songs. For this reason, it is my pleasure to permit photocopying of the songs from this songbook by teachers of children everywhere.
Joan Cobb
Monterey, California
August 2009
Cover: computerized version of a design by Joan Cobb
© 2009 Delta Wave Press, www.deltawavepress.com |
Delta Wave Press