“Ms. Krska, it’s time for Fur Elise” came the text at 12:59PM from Yana. A minute later, the face of an eager second grader with pig tails coming off the sides of her head pops up on the WhatsApp screen.
Before the Newark schools closed, Jee-Hoon Krska’s workday started at 9 a.m. on her teaching days at the South Street School, in the Ironbound section. Six first graders would file into the curtained-off section of the school auditorium and sit down at one of the portable keyboards, lined up in three rows. Smiling, giggling, chattering at first, they’d quickly settle down and take out a page of music from their backpack, placing it on the music stand on the keyboard. They would don headphones to hear themselves play. Then they began their lessons, with Ms. Krska and an assistant or two moving from student to student.
The day would continue with children from successive grades—the fourth graders, the kindergarten group, and so on—each group working together or alone, practicing, tapping out rhythms, learning to sing a song to help them learn to play it on the keys. The teachers and volunteers would sit one-on-one, guiding, challenging, and praising.
This is Keys 2 Success—or K2S—in action. The non-profit Ms. Krska founded in 2016 (leaving a 20-year career in semiconductors to do so; Dr. Krska is a Julliard-trained musician and also holds a PhD. in electrical engineering from MIT), K2S brings classical piano instruction to Newark children from pre-K through elementary school, including kids from Pennington Court public housing. All of the students participate voluntarily. From its original 12 students, K2S now reaches over 100 children through its schoolyear and summer programs.
When the schools closed in March, all educators—including Ms. Krska—had to figure out how to keep the lessons going without a classroom. “My own children have virtual music lessons with their piano teacher,” Ms. Krska observed, “but the ‘Keys kids’ have lost not only the classroom but the instrument.”
A few of her students do have access to a piano or keyboard at home, so virtual lessons by cell phone are possible, as is ongoing practice. For these lucky families, the virtual classroom has brought surprising benefits. “Many lessons take place with a parent’s participation—maybe holding up the cell phone. So the parents are much more aware of what and how their children are learning.” One mother quipped, “By the time we’re through this, I’ll know how to play piano, too.”
However, only about one-third of the students are able to take advantage of these solutions. For the other children without access to a keyboard, Ms. Krska is working on packet of exercises and resources “just to keep them in touch with the program,” she said.
But in learning to play piano, there’s no substitute for putting fingers to keys—so if you happen to have a keyboard sitting in your basement, storage area or a seldom-visited corner of your home, this might be the perfect time to take it out and dust it off. No, not because you might finally learn a little piano, but because you have a chance to put it to use and make a real difference. You can donate it to Keys 2 Success, so that a child in Newark can continue learning to play piano even though the school is closed. You’ll get the tax benefit, the extra space, and the good feeling that accompanies helping others.
If you would like to help in other ways, you can make a monetary donation at our website.
