Even professionals make mistakes. That’s what I learned while watching Christina Aguilera perform the National Anthem during Sunday’s Super Bowl. I have conflicting feelings about the faux pas. The critic in me wants to scream out, “You just don’t mess that up!” While the performer in me is saying, “I might have made the same mistake if I had been singing all alone in front of that many people.” The teacher in me says, “That’s why I spend two weeks at the beginning of each school year teaching my students the words to The Star Spangled Banner.” Northwestern has so many amazingly talented children, who’s to say that we may not someday see one of them on that Super Bowl stage? So, each year I make sure that my students know the words to The Star Spangled Banner. Though the words are difficult to learn, they aren’t impossible to memorize, and the more we study and understand the words, the easier they become. That is why we not only memorize the words, but spend time learning the meanings of the words and the history behind them. By sixth grade our students should have a firm understanding of the treasured song.
Christina Aguilera’s mistake made for a great teaching moment. My older students were able to pick out the mistake and describe what happened. But I forgive Ms. Aguilera for her mistake. We all make mistakes and it seems like we always make them at the worst possible times, for instance, the biggest football game of the year. Whether the words just proved too difficult, she was too nervous, or as one news source suggested, she was trying too hard to be an Aretha Franklin-like diva, I’m sure it won’t happen again.
Natalie Imbruglia
