"Born to be Wild" - Max Aitken Academy

We are a class that is a microcosm Canada. We have a mixture of newcomers from 6 nations and
Mi'kmaq First Nation students among us. What made it so special was that the students playing
instruments, with the exception of the violinist, were new to the instruments they played in the song.
This class song challenge was also the end of a project that we have been working on where a local
singer/songwriter, Terry Whalen, has been coming into the classroom on Wednesdays to write and
record songs with the kids. This particular class composed and recorded 2 songs, "This City" and
"It's a Good Place To Be," one of which was already played on the local radio station, 95.9 Rewind.
Why this project? Music is universal. Music is therapy. We are the only school district in our
province that offers music therapy. Our music therapy educator , Terry Whalen, travels from school to
school and torches kids’ lives. When he was willing to come to my classes and give students a
voice, I jumped at the opportunity.
There are few among us that do not have favourite songs. If I am to speak any language in my
multilingual class, it is that of music. At times I was not sure that we would be ready in time for this
contest but with a class of kids who were willing to try, we did. It’s not perfect, but the journey was
so very worth it. The discoveries I made about the kids, and that the kids made about themselves,
wapriceless.
For more information about the Canadian Music Class Challenge please visit: cbcmusic.ca/mus...