We Hold These Truths...or, Do We?

By Lenny Rountree

“We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal…that they are endowed by their creator…”  These words begin the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, one of the founding documents that elementary school students learn about, especially in the fifth grade, where improving graphomotor function, writing more effectively and fluently comes into greater focus. Like most educators, I believe that critical thinking is a life skill and should be developed among our students whenever possible. Especially in this day in age where, for so many people, their emotions often trump “critical thinking,” even to the extreme, where objective facts can be dismissed out of hand, if those facts do not buttress a narrative they want to believe in. The CSQ thinking routine or “claim-support-question” exercise is a good way to give kids practice in thinking critically and developing an informed opinion. So I decided why not support the students in their learning of the Declaration of Independence with this thinking routine framework known as "CSQ."  That famous sentence was put to a melody, which was then incorporated into a medley, recorded by the vocal group "The Fifth Dimension" in 1970. Great! Arts integration at work! 

I sought to integrate the study of the Declaration of Independence in my unit on understanding the music form known as “medley.”  A common 5th grade music standard is the study of “medley.” Having been a fan of their music, I was aware that the Fifth Dimension recorded a medley of songs that opened with the Declaration of Independence text. The Fifth Dimension released their medley called “The Declaration” in 1970 when in America; there were dissenting voices around the Vietnam war and rapid social change that scared a lot of people. The medley opens with the unison singing of the text "We hold these truths..." and that section of music is followed by “A Change Is Gonna Come” and “People Just Gotta Be Free.” The group was so popular at the time, that they were invited to the White House to perform the song for the president and his guests. They were coming off the heels of major TV show appearances and Grammy nominations. The Fifth Dimension consisted of: Florence LaRue, Billy Davis Jr., Marilyn McCoo, Ron Towson and Lamonte McLemore. They were initially met with silence when they finished singing, but President Nixon stood to clap, then everyone else, including several governors, followed suit.

The singing of the Declaration of Independence was clearly controversial at the time, but why? This is the question I put before my 5th Graders along with a packet of “data” for them to share and discuss in small groups.  Of course, I had to explain to them what the word “controversy” meant. Typically I would open this unit teaching the students to sing the Declaration of Independence melody, which I hoped would result in them keeping those words in mind for a longer period of time. We’d sit in a circle and do a "quick share" of current controversies they were aware of. As a reminder, I gave them the Webster dictionary definition of “controversy.” Then I distributed a "data" packet of pertinent information, including: a Fifth Dimension picture and bio, the text of the Declaration of Independence, an interview with Florence LaRue where she talks about the musical “Hair,” an article about Thomas Jefferson, a profile of the year 1970, and so on. This data was meant to help students understand the times and the cultural trends of 1970. With this, they could begin to develop their own individual opinion and arrive at a claim they could argue, about the medley and why it was so controversial. Some students initially thought that it was because the Fifth Dimension had long hair, or because the older generation looked down on the younger generation.

I handed out a student-friendly rubric so students could learn to write and assess the strength of their own individual claims. I gave them a graphic organizer to help them better organize their thoughts and write a claim of one or two sentences, their supporting statements in the next section, and then a counter-argument against their own claim in the last section. For their initial claim, I provided a sentence starter to help them. It went like this, “The singing of the Declaration of Independence by the Fifth Dimension in 1970 was considered by many to be controversial because…”  They had to fill in the rest. The most difficult part for them was to argue against their own claim, but that is how they could determine whether or not the claim they made was a strong or weak one. We staged classroom debates with two “podiums” and a student “moderator.” These informal debates gave them some public speaking experience in that I made them aware of projecting their voices before an audience and showing the audience eye contact, all great performance skills for them to work on.

Teachers, you can teach a unit like mine to middle school and high school students. With older kids you can discuss in greater detail the language of the Declaration, how those words were understood in a certain context and how perceptions can shift depending on the messenger. I am passionate about broadening student’s understanding of the world through music education and I am always thinking of ways to integrate the arts. My book “The Notable Characters” is the result of teaching the time values of different notes and rests, teaching students how to draw the symbols on the music staff and how to mathematically calculate them to fit properly into measures marked by meter. In teaching the rudiments of music, I utilize audio-visual presentations, classroom performances, role-playing, kinetic games, humor, singing, and playing instruments. I hope to establish a school where music is scheduled and taught as one of the core academics. If you find this interesting and worthwhile, I hope that you will share any constructive ideas you might have.

By the end of this "Declaration of Independence Medley" unit you should expect your students to be able to confidently say “I can define the song form called "medley," sing the first four phrases of ‘The Declaration’ and describe the controversy around the Fifth Dimension medley of 1970." During the unit, students also spent time producing a poster that showed their collective reflections on the data they examined and the conversations they had. If you adopt this unit you might consider having your students record a version of the “Declaration.” Perhaps they can perform it as a class before the school community. Listen to the “Declaration” and enjoy. Thanks are in order to Thomas Jefferson (and his Continental Congress committee cohorts) for writing such a great lyric and the Fifth Dimension for being brave to make this recording at that time.