Philosophy of Education

The purpose of music education is not simply to teach young people how to make music which will include reading notes, rhythms, and music theory, but should also include teaching the student how to express themselves through the music by helping them find music that they enjoy. Another significant aspect of teaching music is teaching the students how to respond to the conductor. The conductor is expressing themself and the players are expressing themselves through the music. How these two interact with each other is vital.

The student’s role in the music classroom is to come to class excited to learn and prepared for the lesson. Just as a math or physics class requires outside time to prepare for class, I believe preparation is also required for the music classroom. That might look like practicing or doing music theory homework if that is the assignment. I also believe that students should actually be making music, not just learning about it. One way I would encourage this outside of the classroom would be to have students find recordings and play along with the recordings. The students would be able to pick their own piece of music, but would be required to do this frequently.

The role of the teacher in music education is to be a master of the material as well as continuing to listen to new music and be relevant for their students. They are also responsible for clearly communicating what they are wanting in the music they are conducting. This might look like them actually demonstrating what they want in the music with the type of hand gesture and body language they would be exhibiting while conducting. The music teacher should also be teaching students how to practice on their own. They should be well-versed in many methods of practice to accommodate for the myriad learning styles present within the music classroom.

The way the music teacher interacts with their community is vital. The music teacher needs to realize that if they are living anywhere near the school in which they teach, they will see families and students constantly. The music teacher should also search for opportunities to get their students in front of audiences. Maybe that’s a paying audience in a formal setting, or in a public space to just teach the students to be in front of a crowd, whatever that crowd looks like. I think the music teacher of a school should be involved with the community in where they have concerts and who is invited to concerts and the music they choose to play. Another benefit of having the students performing in public is that the community will begin to see music as a vital part of everyday life. As we continue to see, more and more school systems are cutting music from their curriculum. This needs to stop and it is only by showing the community how music positively impacts the students’ lives that we can reverse this trend.