Here at Bellows Free Academy, music is played during passing time.

The music is constant and has been the same for awhile.  Why no change?

Jennifer Konrad is a human services teacher for the Northwest Technical Center.  Mrs. Konrad has been here at BFA for two years and loves it.

“I like some of the selection of music because it’s from my generation.  it’s my second year here now, I am, like, okay time to change it up. It would be great if they could add more current music,” Konrad said.

Konrad concluded that maybe the music is to help us with routine with a song being what day it is.  The dreary music on Monday would be the example on how most people dislike Mondays.

“That’s good for structure, but I thought the purpose of the music was to really engage the students during passing to make it a positive experience for kids.  I’m hearing feedback from kids that it’s not the case,” Konrad said.

Kim Woodworth and Steven Davis from the IT department.  want to make changes and would be open to suggestions.

“We could do an open poll or a Google survey having a choice of instrumental music or slowly move new songs into the system,” Davis said.

Davis said that if changes to the music is going to happen they would have to rewire the system and 100 plus songs would have to be added.

Listen did an article on “The benefits of Listening to Music.”  Bill Jenkins who has his Ph.D researched and found some interesting results.

“The human brain is wired to filter regular predictable patterns out from the noise surrounding us (e.g., we can pick out a friend’s voice in a room filled with many other sounds and voices.) Musical training enhances this cognitive ability” Jenkins wrote.

The website Listen, concludes their article written by Bill Jenkins with saying that active engagement with listening or playing music makes an adaptive auditory system.

Kylie Rogers (‘20)  loves the environment of BFA and the diversity in the students.  Passing time music was one thing she wanted to speak about.

“I feel like the reason that we have music during passing periods is to let us know when the passing time is done and to keep in sync.  Some students, it helps keep track instead of changing it up constantly.”

Rogers also brought up that the music can get pretty repetitive and that it doesn’t help to have the same song play over and over.

“At times, the passing music can drive me crazy,” Rogers said.

“15 Benefits of Listening to Music” is an article written by Michelle Millis Chappel.  The article brought up points of interest in why we possibly have music during passing periods.

“Listening to music you enjoy decreases levels of the stress hormone cortisol in your body, which counteracts the effects of chronic stress. This is an important finding since stress causes 60% of all our illnesses and disease,” Chappel wrote.

Chappel also wrote, “Music lowers stress and improves health.” The article highlighted some major points in why there could be music during passing periods.

Alek Wolfe BFA alumni did what he could to change the music.  He understands that the same music can be boring. That we need variety within our music not the same songs on repeat.

“ A lot of the music that BFA played was not great for this reason [The same music being played repeatedly]. It was great when they played once or twice but to repeat it, it was annoying. I believe that the reason why they play the same thing over and over is because they don’t have students in control of the music. That’s why I asked last year about me taking control of it. Me and a few other people got tired of the same music,” Wolfe said.

Kim Woodworth and Steven Davis are open to suggestions for the music and are willing to make changes. From the IT department.