Martha Crowell, Beloved Music Teacher, Retires

After 44 years at Springside and SCH Academy, beloved Lower School for Girls music teacher Martha Crowell HA'97 has retired. 

"I first heard of Springside through a placement service in 1982, came to interview, and fell in love with it," she said during SCH's closing faculty meeting. "The artwork on the walls, the dedication and skill of the music faculty, the discourse among teachers, and the way everyone spoke about the students."

An expert in the Orff philosophy, a child-centered approach to music education, she focused on each child's unique differences. The consummate educator, Crowell champions multidisciplinary teaching—like connecting science and music by having students play native bird calls on recorders in the woods.

"When children are taken seriously from their earliest years, magic happens. It is equally important to note that I don’t always know who will become the most amazing future musicians, which is all the more reason to pay close attention to every child," said Crowell, who shared that she knew she wanted to teach music from an early age.

For 25 summers, she taught graduate-level Orff courses to music educators across the Mid-Atlantic region. Her international experience includes studying at the Orff Institute in Salzburg and teaching students from six continents at the San Francisco International Orff Course. 

"Students have ample room to explore and to grow, and they encourage each other along the way," she remarked. "It is so exciting as an educator to witness this exploration and growth and to have the honor of creating lessons that allow students to flourish. Paula Lawrence Wehmiller spoke of 'the miracle of the bread dough rising,' that point at which growth suddenly happens after not being evident for a while. What a privilege it is to celebrate it when it happens."