History is music to their ears

Inspired by Lin-Manuel Miranda and his musical “Hamilton,” two Ozaukee Middle School students turned history into music and have received national recognition for their song.

Seventh-graders Ashlyn Lawonn and Jossalyn Morano found out last week they are among the winners of a national contest sponsored by the Hamilton Education Program, an organization created by Miranda and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History to integrate history education with the arts.

For their prize, the girls will receive a three-day, all expenses paid trip to New York City, where they will see “Hamilton,” have the opportunity to ask the cast questions and receive “Hamilton” merchandise signed by Miranda.

It will be their first trip to New York and their first time seeing a live performance of “Hamilton.”

“We’re very excited,” the girls said.

Based on the email informing Ashlyn and Jossalyn they were winners, their social studies teacher, Lindsay McBride, believes the girls are among the 10 winners chosen on the basis of merit. Competition organizers also select 10 contestants randomly to go to New York.

“These two girls are so deserving of this recognition and opportunity to go to New York,” McBride said. “They worked so hard on this.”

McBride learned of the competition and decided to turn it into a class project this school year. The assignment for her students was to pair up, choose a historical figure from the founding of the Republic and compose a song — modernizing history and historical language through song as is done in “Hamilton.”

Ashlyn and Jossalyn chose Abigail Adams, first lady to the second president of the United States and mother of the sixth, who despite being a woman born in the 1700s exerted significant influence over the politics of the day.

Adams was a prolific letter writer, and Ashlyn and Jossalyn focused on her letters to Thomas Jefferson that dealt with an enslaved girl named Sally Hemings, who Jefferson inherited from his father-in-law and later became his mistress.

“I think they chose Abigail Adams because she was such a strong female figure of the time,” McBride said. “I think they were also drawn to the complicated relationship  between Jefferson and Sally Hemings.”

A week spent doing research and composing songs was just the first part of the assignment. Then students spent another week rehearsing and recording their songs in choir class.

“I loved the collaboration with choir,” McBride said.

The assignment was a challenging one, she admits.

“It’s hard to take letters from the 1700s and adapt them for a modern-day musical piece,” she said.

It’s also not easy convincing seventh-graders to then perform their songs.

“If a teacher came up to me when I was their age and told me to write music and perform it, I would have said definitely not, so to see these students step out of their comfort zones was really rewarding.

“For kids to be vulnerable and put their ideas out there in song is really a great learning experience.”

It’s a learning experience that McBride’s future students will also have. If she had any doubts about whether to make the contest a permanent part of her class, they were dashed by the response she received after it was announced for the whole school to hear that Ashlyn and Jossalyn had won.

“I have sixth-graders coming up to me asking if they’ll be able to do this next year and eighth-graders disappointed because they missed out on it,” McBride said.