The "good idea" here is "Learning Through Music" -- wherein music informs the entire curriculum. A growing body of research indicates that music education improves academic performance in reading, math and social studies as well; in 1998 three New England Conservatory (NEC) faculty members and one other school educator, decided to create an elementary school for inner-city Boston children, that would be a laboratory -- testing the idea and its many practical ramifications, and developing replicable teaching modules for dissemination to schools everywhere (in 2000 NEC also created a national Journal for Learning Through Music).

Selected by lottery (with a waiting list of 400), the 132 students have no special musical aptitudes going in; all are given keyboard training, a home and school recorder (an easy instrument) and in the first grade, a violin (a difficult instrument). Music informs everything -- not just course content, but mental and physical skills development (listening, questioning, creating, practicing, performing and reflecting). Classes and student-teacher ratios are small, intellectual curiosity and the love of learning are valued, and--not least--a free extended-day program supports both students and their working parents. Donors to CLCC are participants in a nationally distinguished, leading, educational experiment.