Mark Teeters

Mark Teeters is a choral music teacher at Vintage High School in the Napa Valley Unified School District. He believes that music has charms to reach students on multiple levels. “There is overwhelming evidence that music improves academic performance and provides a creative outlet for teenagers,” says Teeters. “Music has always had the power to make languages, culture and history come alive in ways unrivaled by any textbook.” Teeters talks about how he infuses cultural lessons into his music classes. “Our kids have sung in at least 20 different languages from Hungarian to Hebrew. Classroom discussion on the texts of songs has opened students’ hearts and minds to the beauty of poetry. Music operates in not just the factual realm, but also in an emotional one. In a time when many teenagers are disaffected at home, alienated or separated from adults and sometimes even from their peers, music connects them in real ways.”