It’s All Good: Philly Teacher Brings Music HOME for Kids Posted by Max Pete on 08/08/13 | Filed under Opinion, General Awesomeness, Its All Good

These days, all you see and hear on the news is about which country is on the brink of war, the economic crisis and other information that drives fear into your everyday life. I’m tired of hearing nothing but bad news, that’s why I decided to write about positive and inspiring stories that are overlooked by the mainstream media in "It's All Good". This week....

When schools face budget cuts, it is sadly always the music program that is first to go. Andrew Jackson Public School in south Philadelphia is no different, and has been without a music program for thirty years until Chris Argerakis decided to do something about it. Chris joined the teaching staff five years ago and has since built a music program even though the school districts budget to him is only $100 a year.

Chris who lived in L.A. for eight years by scoring music for films decided to move back to his hometown of Philadelphia to pursue a graduate degree in music education. Teaching had always been on the backburner,” he says, “I started on a whim. My neighbor overhead me practicing when I was 19 and asked if I could teach her daughter.”

After grad school was finished, Chris quickly found a position at Andrew Jackson, and has been employed ever since. After learning that the school could not afford to provide instruments, Chris went online and decided to start a fundraiser for his students and got 30 guitars as donations by local people and companies in the area. He says he has been able to teach the kids a good foundation for guitar playing. “I tell them that I’m not out to make them virtuosos,” Argerakis points out. “I’m simply out to expose them to music.”



Luckily for Chris, the principle of Andrew Jackson, Lisa Kaplan is a big supporter of the program he started. “As soon as I became principal, my collaboration with Chris began and we focused on music education,” Kaplan says. “Arts are the motivator for many kids. Programs like these increase focus and increase peer relations.”

After the first year of music classes, the kids were very excited about their new program, so Chris decided to form a band. The band started off small with only an eight-member guitar ensemble, but the kids wanted to grow it bigger. The kids asked if we could implement other instruments in the second year,” Argerakis says. “At first, I didn’t know how I would teach them. But I started with simple beats on the drums and chords on the keyboard.”

The band today has eleven members in it, and adopted a new band name “HOME.” The band name comes from the title of and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros song, which the band loved.

Today, one of the band’s favorites is "Of Monsters and Men", but Chris always includes hits from an earlier generation such as “Summer of ‘69” by Bryan Adams and “Sweet Child o’ Mine” by Guns N’Roses.



Besides being just the band teacher, Chris has also become a friend and mentor to his students. Jasmine Yedra, band captain, explains that there is a high level of trust between students and teacher: “Mr. Argerakis and I are really close. I feel like I can tell him everything. He’s there for me educationally, but also personally.”

Even though Chris has been able to support this music program so far, he still worries that the program will be cut next year due to school budget issues. “We’ve tried so hard to create a wonderful environment, one that is engaging and artistic,” Kaplan says. “The budget cuts put this all at risks.”

But Chris is hopeful that the program will go on and has started asking for donations again to make sure these kids get a music education they deserve.

If you would like to see what else Chris and the school is up to you can like them on Facebook here and if you want to donate to the program, click here.