Merge Music Presents:
The Humanality* Project
The Creative Spirit — a Powerful Ally
If you work with challenged youth or adults, you may know that the creative spirit can be a key player in positive human development. Merge Education exists to offer you ways to enliven that spirit.
Engaging these students isn’t easy, but paying attention to who they are as individuals and teaching to their interests and strengths will help greatly (see our post for a discussion of Strengths Based Teaching). Your attention to who they are will encourage them to begin to trust you and open up … open up their creative spirit which they have most probably buried.
Merge Education was founded in 2008 to provide a teaching approach that enlivens the creative spirit. Jazz/Blues composer and pianist Bill Rossi created the approach after a lifetime of teaching. Bill is an excellent example of the strengths and talents that all humans have, including those students deemed “unable to learn”.
The Humanality Project celebrates the truth that all students are able to learn.
The Humanality Project
Looking back, it’s clear that The Humanality Project began in Bill’s living room when he was about 14 years old. Struggling to make sense of a world that was telling him what to think and how to be, he had the great fortune to hear the Glenn Miller Orchestra. The music sparked such joy in him that he began dancing around the room.
Next came Artie Shaw, Tommy Dorsie, Count Basie, then Oscar Peterson and … man, those guys could swing! You can read Bill’s story here, but let’s just say he wholeheartedly agrees with Duke Ellington’s famous line It Don’t Mean a Thing if it Don’t Have that Swing.
If you want to swing, you’d better get down with your creative spirit. Creative music can cultivate your inner voice, stimulate your creative spirit, bring you happiness and peace. All by cultivating your humanality.
Bill’s worked for that happiness all his life; that’s what fuels his music and unique teaching approach. He is currently recording to share his experience, and his music will be presented here when published.
*humanality
(h)yo͞omə nalədē
noun
A gestalt of the essential human qualities which, when well cultivated, creates happiness and peace.
By providing the tools to reach a person’s underlying spirit, or essence, Bill Rossi’s approach enables teachers to bring forth aspects of students’ being that truly humanize them.