At the UC Education Center, the pedagogical booklet “The Magic Flute in School” was presented.

The educational booklet, promoted by the artist and 2020 National Prize for Musical Arts winner Miryam Singer, proposes integrating the opera The Magic Flute into the school curriculum through an interdisciplinary and participatory approach.

Last Wednesday, October 15th, the pedagogical booklet for the project “The Magic Flute in School,” prepared by the architect, opera singer, and 2020 National Prize for Musical Arts, Miryam SingerThe notebook was written under the auspices of a FONDART grant from the Ministry of Cultures, Arts and Heritage, and it consists of two objectives: to stage an adaptation of Mozart's opera "The Magic Flute" in a school context; and to make the opera a learning project with cross-curricular objectives in basic education. 

The project was born from the desire to transform opera into an educational tool accessible to everyone. “The fantasy and magic of opera have the potential to reach the hearts of children, capture their attention, and allow them to discover dimensions of human knowledge that transcend conventional logic,” states the booklet's prologue.

The initiative is crystallized in the pedagogical notebook that comprises a performative phase, which culminates with the presentation of the opera on stage and a pedagogical phase that is articulated with suggestions to carry out activities focused on The Magic Flute, in the subjects of Language, History, Science, Visual Arts and Music from first to eighth grade during a week of Transversal Learning Objectives.

The work that Miryam Singer did in the pedagogical notebook, explained the Dean of Education UC Alejandro CarrascoThis work systematizes a project she has been developing for many years and symbolizes the values ​​and ideas of the Faculty of Education. Therefore, the presentation was part of the Faculty's 83rd anniversary celebrations. "What Miryam has done is forge close ties with schools, and we felt it was important to highlight this connection with the school system. This work is central to our Faculty; we do it daily, and in that sense, it symbolizes our relationship with our students," said the dean. 

He also added that “this proposal incorporates the performing arts, music, research, and inquiry in various subsectors, including mathematics, language, and technology. It is a collaborative effort among teachers, where students actively explore and construct the opera. This teaching and working methodology is central to good school systems and institutions. It is an interdisciplinary curricular approach.” 

In the text, Singer explains that in 2023 an unprecedented experience took place in the history of Chilean education: alongside the presentation of an adaptation of Mozart's The Magic Flute, a comprehensive educational program linked to the opera was developed. While the young musicians prepared for the performance, all preschool and elementary students simultaneously researched and co-created with their teachers in the classroom, integrating interdisciplinary knowledge with The Magic Flute as a tool for cross-curricular learning. This involved incorporating language, mathematics, history, arts, technology, and music into their subjects.

Therefore, Singer explained during the launch, the impact lies with the teachers and educational staff. “These individuals must recapture the spirit of the children, because that spirit is free. At the end of the day, what remains are memories in the minds of those children, at their most impressionable age. The principal must inspire their team of teachers, who are the facilitators of this process of acquisition, experience, knowledge, and life lessons for the children.”

The notebook incorporates contributions from teachers at the Arturo Matte Larraín School in San Ramón and the Presidente Riesco Errázuriz School in Maipú. Sonia Correa, the principal of that school, who participated in a panel discussion during the launch, emphasized that “Miryam brought us a gift for the soul. Bringing opera to the school, to a primary school, was food for the soul.”

“There was a cross-curricular effort that lasted all year. We are here closing a chapter with the launch of this pedagogical workbook, which can truly be implemented; it's not a pipe dream, it's entirely feasible to take it into the classroom, because we have completely achievable learning objectives, with activities, and it's also within the learning objectives proposed in the curriculum guidelines. It was a fantastic project,” the director mentioned.

As more educational communities integrate The Magic Flute into their basic education curricula, the material will serve as a guide and encouragement for their own teachers to add contributions that will be recorded in the online version of the text. 

“We believe that the use of this new and effective teaching and learning methodology through opera can represent an innovative advance in the comprehensive education of children in Chile,” says Miryam Singer in the pedagogical booklet, which will soon be available online.