Little Steven Van Zandt teaches at Asbury Park middle school, imparts rock wisdom

Class was in session Tuesday, Feb. 27, in Asbury Park — and music legend Little Steven Van Zandt was the teacher.

Van Zandt, a member of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, visited the city's Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School to talk about his TeachRock learning curriculum with administrators, teachers and students

The rocker founded TeachRock as a teacher's aid that uses music history in lessons. Allison Hoffman was using the TeachRock method for a lesson on the country's history with segregation for her sixth-grade class.

The focal point was the Beatles refusal to play to segregated audiences in the South in the 1960s.

More: E Street Band members returned to MetLife Stadium for Devils and Flyers NHL game

“Music and sports were really the best ways people got used to working together,” said Van Zandt at the head of the class. “Even the racist white supremacists people loved Motown. Everybody loved Black music and they loved their sports. When sports became integrated with Jackie Robinson and other Black athletes, they found out Black people were helping their teams. Sports and music helped integrate the country.”

The students studied the Van Zandt-led song “Sun City” and learned how the 1985 track helped turn the music world's attention to the racist system of apartheid in South Africa. The song, which featured Springsteen, Jackson Browne, the Temptations, Run-DMC and more, was one of the first collaborative records to include both rockers and rappers.

“It's a lazy way to have your identity to be based on hatred or hate, you know?” said Van Zandt to the class. “It's a lazy way to live. 'Well, I don't know who I am, but I know what I don't like.' It's a lazy way of going through life and we have a lot of examples of that going on right now.

"The more intelligent person will say, 'Yes they are different, but let's learn about that and learn from it and make our country even greater.' That's been the story of America.”

More: Wendy Williams and family using Jersey smarts, media savvy to regain control of her life

Van Zandt then asked if “Sun City” could be turned louder in the class when the video was shown. The class started singing along to the chorus.

In Hope Walk's seventh-grade class, students used “Sun City” as a jumping off point to discuss when is the right time to get involved.

“You have to speak out when you see injustice,” said Dalyn Bunting, 12. “If I see something wrong or somebody going through problems in life, even if they don't want my help, I'm going to tell someone, a teacher.”

“They might be too shy to ask for help,” said Van Zandt, sitting in a circle with the kids

“When you see something wrong you have to say something,” added Braylon Johnson, 12. “You can't just let it be because then it's going to happen more and more.”

The TeachRock curriculum, used across the country, was recently adopted by the school. Van Zandt created it after he was asked about the lack of music education in U.S. schools by the Music Teachers of America. TeachRock does not teach music per se, but uses music history as a frame of reference for other lessons.

“Getting the kids to open up in a safe space when they do it in a circle and infusing the academics of the music is a universal space to get these kids communicating,” said Eva Ponce, administrative assistant to the director of Special Services. “Post COVID, these kids have been shut down, isolated and behind computer screens. Getting them to actually interact together and using music as a component of that is a phenomenal thing to see. These kids are really, really reacting to it in a positive way.”

Van Zandt, 73, is a Middletown native who has been connected to Asbury Park's musical legacy for decades. He's a founder of Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, and an architect of the Sound of Asbury Park, a merging of rock and R&B that is recognized around the world.

Van Zandt, who was also on TV's "The Sopranos," is a former resident of Asbury Park. His roommate was Springsteen.

“It's amazing how smart these kids are,” said Van Zandt of the King Middle School kids. “They're just smarter than us and faster than us. It just confirmed for us the reason we started this curriculum was because we need to create a new methodology of teaching for this generation. We got to do it. The old methods are not going to work for these kids.”

It was an inspirational moment for Van Zandt and the kids.

“I was able to say music has been my whole life, and a lot of that happened right down the street,” he said. “I think they found that encouraging and inspirational because it's right here.”

Visit teachrock.org for more information.

Subscribe to app.com for the latest on the New Jersey music scene.

Chris Jordan, a Jersey Shore native, covers entertainment and features for the USA Today Network New Jersey. Contact him at @chrisfhjordan; cjordan@app.com

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Little Steven teaches at Asbury Park school, imparts rock wisdom