ENID, Okla. — Lindsey Schroder grew up loving music with parents who were teachers.
She was adamant, though, about one thing.
“I’ll never be a teacher,” she said, before enrolling at Oklahoma State University.
Her parents both taught in Kingfisher Public Schools and influenced the school to offer a vocal music class.
“I watched them struggle to support a family of five,” she said. “They loved teaching, but my dad also coached and sometimes my mom picked up a part-time job. Even though I loved music, I wasn’t going to be a teacher.”
Schroder enrolled in interior design and event planning at OSU. This new direction lasted a semester before she followed her heart back to music.
She went home and told her vocal teacher, Beth Berkenbile ,at Kingfisher.
“She wasn’t surprised. She had such a big impact on my life,” Schroder said.
Now, Schroder is influencing another generation of music students in Chisholm Public Schools. Music education is who she is.
At OSU, music education was like a double degree.
“I took the education courses, then there was music education,” Schroder said. “I studied subjects like sight-singing, voice and piano.”
During her years at OSU, Schroder was involved in numerous activities including a sorority, Spring Fling and the Homecoming Parade Committee. She has carried this extra commitment into school.
Schroder now is on state boards in music education. One of them is Oklahoma Music Education, and another is the Kodaly Board that organizes workshops for teachers. It expands the concepts of Zoltan Kodaly, a composer whose approach to music education is as a social and cultural experience best taught in groups.
With OKME, Schroder chairs “Circle the State With Song.” Students from 21 regions around the state are chosen to learn eight songs and get together for a one-day festival to sing them together.
Along with being a music education teacher in grades kindergarten through fifth grade, Schroder teaches middle school choir club and elementary music club at Chisholm.
“I love what I do and can’t imagine not sharing it with the kids,” she said.
Schroder started her teaching career at Dover Public Schools, and after one year she was hired by Enid Public Schools and taught at Adams Elementary School, then Glenwood Elementary School. Schroder said Eddie Lou Strimple, former McKinley Elementary School music teacher, was a positive influence on her teaching career. She has taught 15 years, 10 at Chisholm.
Schroder has won several awards, including district Teacher of the Year, Oklahoma State Department of Education Rising Star and OKME Music Educator.
“Lindsey Schroder is a game-changer who impacts the entire school climate and culture,” said Chisholm Principal Darla Smith.
Schroder has even written and produced the “Kaizen” song. “Kaizen” is the motivational word brought to Chisholm by Superintendent Dudley Darrow meaning constant improvement.