The Words and Music class has long been a staple of the Princeton Day School English curriculum for Juniors and Seniors who are taking semester-long electives. Since 2012, English teacher Mr. Jamie McCulloch has taught this course to explore the integral role of music in literature and the musicality of language itself.
Interestingly, Mr. McCulloch didn’t always view music and literature as connected: “For a while, I kept my interest in music separate from literary discussions. I thought they were different, separate things. But the more I explored, the more I realized they share many of the same qualities found in what we often call ‘high art’.”
Mr. McCulloch’s passion for music began in childhood. He grew up in a “very musical family” with a mother who taught his father to play guitar, and a sister who taught herself to play. “Instead of learning to play myself,” he admitted, “I ended up just becoming someone who really liked listening to music.” That love led him to co-found a rock station in Augusta, Georgia, with a friend.
When developing the Words in Music curriculum, Mr. McCulloch drew on both passions. “The class kind of grew out of my realization that the books I loved most were the ones with a musicality to the language,” he said. The course has since become a space to explore the intersection between sound and story.
One of the central texts of the class is the 1962 British novella A Clockwork Orange. Students analyze its complex themes such as moral choice and free will. Pointing to the novel’s exploration of extremes—right and wrong, order and anarchy, Mr. McColloch asks: “Are you going to be someone who destroys, or someone who creates?”
The class explores the characterization of the main antagonist Alex. Mr. McCulloch is drawn to Alex because he “doesn’t like him,” but then has “hope for him—which in part comes through Alex’s love of music.” In the class, students observe how Alex’s vivid, often disturbing descriptions of violence are examined through a musical lens: “There’s a creativity and musicality to his language, especially the invented slang Nasdat.”
For prospective students, Mr. McCulloch emphasizes the importance of openness—especially to music of all kinds. “You need to avoid privileging one particular style over another,” he remarked. The class continues to evolve with changing times and technologies. “When I first taught this course, ChatGPT didn’t exist,” he recalled. This year, for the first time, students composed music using the Sonos AI music composition tool. Ultimately Mr. McCulloch wants students in his class to feel connected to what they’re learning: “If you’re not interested in the content, then it’s harder to really work at it. And if you are, the upside can be big.” Over the past decade, Mr. McCulloch has carefully crafted and refined Words and Music, and it remains a vibrant part of the PDS English curriculum—one that will continue to grow for years to come.