Ben Byrom, affectionately known as Mr. Ben to his students at Raleigh Oak Charter School in North Carolina, uses creativity to transform his classroom into a space of living music. He credits his innovation to “how busy my brain is.” He jokingly says, “I have entire worlds, at least a couple of jukeboxes, an abandoned movie theater and a radio DJ all sharing space in my brain.”
Mr. Ben admits that oftentimes, his mind is off daydreaming in sound and color until pieces click together. Luckily, he has the support of a school community that trusts his unusual and sometimes unorthodox ideas. For example, instead of standard ukuleles, Byrom restrung them as “mandoleles” using nylon mandolin strings. His goal was to teach and build transferable muscle memory for orchestra-bound students because mandolins and violins share tuning.
Byrom also collaborates with a local family-run 3-D printing business to prototype affordable mandolins for student use, as well as a long-term goal of looking at incorporating recycled materials. “This is still in its early stages, but it reflects our values around sustainability, accessibility and thoughtful innovation; and points toward an expanding, future-facing vision for the program,” he explains.
Another fun project Byrom spearheaded was introducing emoji-based lyric systems for kindergartners because he recognized that modern students already read emojis fluently long before they can read. Emojis provided an immediate developmentally appropriate bridge for students learning sight words.
Byrom’s approach is deeply rooted in Waldorf education. “Music is experienced through thinking, feeling and doing,” he explains. “I always find ways to engage the whole student rather than delineate skill or outcome.Students move, clap, speak, listen, imagine and reflect — which leads to understanding that develops in the body and emotions before it’s named intellectually.”
His goal is to sustain wonder. “I intentionally engage my own head, hands and heart in my work, refusing to let teaching become stale or copy-paste year after year,” he says. “Students know that I’m glad to share my passion for music, but they also understand that they must do the work — I can’t unzip their brains and pour knowledge in.”
Mr. Ben’s classroom is a place where care and accountability coexist. Not only does he address challenges with a strong sense of time and place, but he keeps judgment out while holding students accountable. “Even students who feel disconnected from music are met with respect and consistency so their experience doesn’t close the door on music for them later in life,” he says.
Right after the height of the COVID pandemic, Byrom joined Raleigh Oak and found a community where music mattered and was already woven into daily classroom life. “My role, then, became one of expanding and deepening what was already there,” he explains. “I worked to align my teaching with what students were already experiencing in their classrooms while bringing consistency, experience and continuity across grades.”
The school and music program has grown and evolved each year and currently includes modern influences like sound science and acoustics through hands-on exploration of vibration and tone. Students also examine how culture and technology reshape musical expression — students talk about hologram concerts and what it means to perform music without a physical performer (this was before AI music exploded). “We also make connections between classic ideas like antiphonal singing and modern recording concepts like panning, which helps students see music technology not as static history but as a living, evolving language,” Byrom says.
He goes on to say that “Growing older and growing up aren’t the same thing at all. I choose to continue learning about new technologies, musical forms, and cultural shifts — not to chase trends, but to remain genuinely curious and actively protect my imagination.”
