As I drove home from a nice visit with my father (Hi Dad!), on the weekend that is the 50th anniversary of the Beatles arrival in the U.S., I sang every word to every Beatles song I own. Literally. Every. Word.

How is this possible, you ask. Well, my parents get most of the credit! Every road trip we took during my childhood (and we took a lot!), we listened to my parents’ music until it became our music. My brother and I are huge fans of much of the music of the 50’s and 60’s, which always made our parents proud. In fact, my father, brother and I exchanged group texts about the Beatles tonight, sharing which special we might watch and what we were listening to!

But it’s not just those decades. I know all the words to MANY songs from a wide variety of years. How? How does my brain retain all those words and melodies when I can’t remember any date I ever had to memorize in a history class? And it’s not just music. I know the words to certain poems, stories, and texts that I’ve loved over the years. Of course, my favorite line from A Midsummer Night’s Dream was memorized by watching Dead Poets Society over and over again!

So why do music and poetry lyrics come so easily to me? Why are those the words I remember? The things I never learned in school, but in other learning experiences…

This all makes me wonder about a typical school’s definition of learning. What are we doing to tap into the passions and interests of our students? In what ways are we sharing our passions with our students? How are we redefining learning to address multiple learning styles and modalities? What will our students know and use in 30 years that they learned with us?

And will I still know all these lyrics in 30 more years?!

What is your favorite Beatles song?!