By EVA THOMAS/Murphy News Service

On a rainy, but warmer-than-average December morning, a frenzy of fifth-graders runs into room 2102 of Horace Mann Elementary School in St. Paul, Minnesota, each grabbing their own chair and placing it on a colorful carpet cutout on which a group of first-graders sat the hour before.

The wall on the right side of the room is completely covered in posters, but not the typical posters you would see in an elementary music classroom. The faces of some of rock’s most influential musicians welcome students upon entering the room—album covers of Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix and The Beatles were a few of the posters music teacher Kevin Dutcher was able to acquire from a secret stash at the Electric Fetus record store in Minneapolis.

Once the students settle in their seats, Dutcher sits down and plays the piano, starting class with the musical classic“Oklahoma.” After this quick warm-up, music books are passed out amongst the students, and seconds later, the sounds of the James Taylor hit “You’ve Got a Friend” fill the room.

Dutcher started working as a music teacher at Horace Mann Elementary School during the 2012-2013 school year. Since then, he has built a music curriculum that incorporates songs he considers to be “the building blocks of an intelligent musical vocabulary,” something that Dutcher has been able to develop and build upon for many years.

Dutcher attended college at Iowa State University, starting out as a computer science major. He eventually switched to theater after his best friend from high school auditioned and made it into a play at Iowa State, inspiring him to do the same.

“I tried out for the play, fell in love, and I knew that’s what I wanted to do [and that] I wanted to be in theater,” he said.

Dutcher’s parents discovered his switch from a major in computer science to one in theater while attending a production in which he was performing.

“After the show, they were like, ‘So Kev, yeah the show was good, but what’s this about you switching from a major from the very secure profession of computer science to theater, where you’re [going to be] poor your whole life?’” Dutcher said.

But Dutcher, 54, said now is the time where everything is coming together, adding that he feels very satisfied in the work he does because he is a much more artistic, big-picture type of guy.

With a theater degree and years of theatrical experience, Dutcher said he treats every class as a show, “performing” as many as seven “shows” in a single day.

Dutcher was asked to put together a curriculum for grades K-5, allowing him the freedom to incorporate teachings into the classroom that are important to him and the things he believes everyone should know about. He has now created a music curriculum that incorporates Rolling Stone magazine’s list of top 100 songs of all time.

“I feel like I was always a big list guy,” he said. “I wanted to do something that was counting a sense of anticipation,” Dutcher added.

Students did not have a rigid music class before Dutcher started working as the music teacher.

“We didn’t have music [before Mr. Dutcher],” Eleanor Osmond, a fifth-grader who has had Dutcher as her music teacher since second grade, said. “[A teacher] would come in and do plays with us, but that’s all I remember,” Eleanor added, vaguely remembering once being assigned a role as a flower in this theater/arts class in kindergarten.

Now, Eleanor and her classmates eagerly talk about the music class they have taken since second grade.

“It is nice to have a consistent [class] and a consistent teacher,” Eleanor said.

In fourth grade, students count down from song 42 to song 22, and in fifth grade, the countdown continues to the number one song of all time—“Like a Rolling Stone” by Bob Dylan. The countdown gives them “something to look forward to,” Dutcher added.

Dutcher said he usually asks his students how many of them heard the song for the first time in his classroom, of which almost 90 percent raise their hands. He added that just being able to expose the kids to this music and [being in the room] the first time they hear the songs is a gift in itself.

The songs Dutcher chooses for his classes also have valuable messages and “always lead to some great discussions,” he said.

“Music is such a great starting point, such a great springboard for discussions and life experiences,” Dutcher said. “And that’s why I do that.”

His fifth-graders had a discussion about the civil rights movement when the class learned song 14, Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind.” They talked through the song’s messages and what the movement was all about in the 1960s.

Dutcher said he talks about the song and the musicians for every new song, its background and any important musical events that occurred during that time. Every music lesson is interactive, and Dutcher makes sure everyone is participating. Dutcher said when he was a kid, all of his music teachers were always stuck on the piano, which resulted in a physical distance from the kids, something that he has tried to eliminate between him and his students.

“I play piano, and I play a super cool blue guitar with rainbow strings, which the kids love,” he said.

Eleanor said she likes the different instruments Dutcher uses in his teaching “instead of having [them] sing to tracks.”

Dutcher added that he is able to walk among the students with his instruments, and if somebody is not singing, he will kneel down until they start singing with him.

Being able to interact with the children without a physical barrier is important in a classroom. And when students are not participating or singing along, he said he kneels down and requests their help.

“I always say, ‘Man, I need your help. I can’t do this by myself, and when we’re all singing together it just sounds so great … I need your help, I need you to be a good singer with me and help me out here,’” he said with smile.

Dutcher said when you ask children for their help, they typically come through.

“We are all humans, and when you ask another person for help, their instinct is to do it,” he said. “And a kid likes to be asked for help by a grown up [because it] makes them feel good.”

Dutcher creates an atmosphere in which music learning flourishes and one in which the students’ interests in music are heighted. His energetic and happy teaching style is something his students said they love about him.

 “He is funny, and he picks out songs we all like,” Greta Stoyke, a fifth-grader, said. She added that her parents know all of the songs she and her classmates sing in Dutcher’s class.

“My parents will always wake me up and [then we’ll] sing the songs,” Greta said.

 Dutcher said he has received nothing but positive feedback from his students and their parents about the songs he teaches.

 “I’ve had parents come up to me and say, ‘My daughter came up to me and asked to listen to some Jimi Hendrix … thank you,’” he said. “And I get that a lot from parents.”

Dutcher added that many parents have told him that he has changed their lives, as well as their children’s lives. Parents have told him that their children never listened to music or cared so much about it before. But now, their interest in the subject matter has peaked.

“They tell me that their kids are going through their record collections, CD collections, seeing what they have and exploring it, all of it,” Dutcher said.

And that is Dutcher’s goal as a music teacher—to share his passion for music with his students, hoping some of it rubs off on them, which, according to some parents, has been the case.

Dutcher said out of all the things he does, working with kids gives him the most satisfaction and a great sense of accomplishment.

“­­­When you see the growth in the kids, the growth in their self-esteem, their self-worth, their feeling of accomplishment … I have seen it change so many lives. It is such an amazing thing,” he said.

Reporter Eva Thomas is studying journalism at the University of Minnesota.