The purpose of this article is to highlight the relationship between general music and social and emotional learning. Social and emotional learning involves a set of social, emotional, behavioral, and character competencies that are essential to success in school, in the workplace, within relationships, in the community, and in life. Music teachers are uniquely positioned to help students become more socially and emotionally competent while simultaneously developing the skills outlined in the general music curriculum. Many general music program activities reinforce and help students understand the concepts of self-management, self-awareness, responsible decisionmaking, relationship skills, and social awareness. Activities such as improvisation, ensemble playing and singing, and defining emotions with music can be used to develop social and emotional learning skills in the general music classroom. The primary objective of this article is to help general music teachers understand that general music learning environments naturally lend themselves well to aiding in these efforts.

Many educators and parents remain unaware of the value of music and the arts beyond obvious, natural entertainment contexts and find it easy to devalue music and arts programing. This article presents a concise review of significant research that demonstrates strong correlations between the study of music and arts as academic disciplines that improve the development of literacy, language, and math skills while also providing a natural link to improved social and emotional competencies. The material is presented to better inform and aid general music specialist efforts to share the academic value of music for students while highlighting distinct contributions to improved emotional, intellectual, and social areas of cognition that other academic disciplines may not achieve as effectively.

The purpose of this column is to promote the use of focused breathing and singing as access points to improved student self-awareness in the general music classroom. Singing is a holistic activity with the healing potential to improve and transform many traumatic life experiences endured by our students. Similarly, mindfulness breathwork is a holistic approach used to enhance self-awareness in the moment and can reduce anxiety. Both pursuits have the potential to help students overcome difficulties of fear, stress, and anxiety. Both practices expose participants to new ways of understanding themselves and the world around them while creating important access points to mindfulness and self-awareness.

Teachers and students are experiencing significant stress and uncertainty this year amid a global pandemic and violent, racially charged, political and civil unrest. It seems fair to say that all of us, students and teachers alike, have navigated a shared traumatic experience. Strong emotions and divisiveness can make normal life feel uncontrollable, even high-risk. The purpose of this column is to provide a germane awareness for teachers to help them better align with social and emotional learning objectives and create trauma-sensitive general music learning environments during these challenging times. It is, after all, our responsibility as caring, professional educators to create safe, predictable settings for children to be, learn, and grow. This can be achieved by awareness and commitment to the creation of social and emotional learning informed/trauma-sensitive general music learning environments in which each student is healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged.

As we consider how best to help our students achieve, we must work to ensure that our practices are equitable. That is, we must make certain that each of our students are equipped with the skills and opportunities to be successful in school and in life. Equity must be a central goal for all educators—in all academic areas. A general music classroom alignment with Social and Emotional Learning can, if implemented with fidelity and purpose, help promote equity in a number of important ways by acknowledging systemic inequities, identifying personal bias, and actively disrupting barriers to equity that plague so many schools.