Like many school teachers, Jeanine Spensieri developed plenty of ideas about how much better things might work in the 6-years she worked in a suburban Long Island public school system. Spensieri, who has an advanced degree in music education, saw music being used in her schools as a sort of throw-away course, an elective that involved very little integration with what was happening to students in the rest of their schooling.

But despite her extensive training and professional expertise, Spensieri found the institutional roadblocks of the traditional system to be more stiffling than they needed to be.

"The school system has been in place for so long. It's been 'this way' for so long, that it is hard to change it," Spensieri said. When she heard about the Manhattan Charter School (which hadn't yet opened at the time) and its desire to fully integrate music instruction in its entire course offerings, she didn't have to think long about making the jump to the start-up public school.

"It's not an elective here," said Spensieri, who now not only teachers music at the charter school, she also serves as the music director. "That's a large part of what brought me to this school. Music can be a powerful educational tool if it is used to its fullest."

The Lower East Side charter school, in its second year, offers daily music instruction, starting in kindergarten. In addition to a Kodaly-based music currículum, students work in a keyboard lab, experience music centers for individualized instruction and keep a music journal. Manhattan Charter School also has a partnership with Lincoln Center in which students study music, dance, theatre and art in collaboration with a Lincoln Center trained teaching artist.

Like most charter schools, the focus is still on high level reading, math, science and social studied. Music is used as a vehicle to support all students' learning. What makes all the music instruction so compelling is the reality that Manhattan Charter School is not a school for accomplished musicians. There's no try-outs, and students don't have to be able to carry a tune.

It is how the music and traditional classes fit together that still has Spensieri excited. The music classrooms look like a lot traditional classrooms in terms of the set-up and daily rituals (there is a word wall in the music room: sing, shout, voice, speak, whisper, lullaby, echo, violin, etc.), but you also find music breaking out in the traditional classrooms. And the lesson plans for each class, which are available on-line to all teachers, allow for close collaboration between the themes the children are exploring in music and their other core subject areas. If the kids are learning their continents in social studies, songs and musical styles from the continents are introduced.

Diane Conniff, the school's executive director, said the school's music program is a good example of what can happen when educators with good training and sound ideas are allowed to put them into action. "It really makes this place special," Conniff said. "The music class is the place where students take-off. We have children who have a tough time elsewhere, but in music they thrive."