This turkey knows HIS future! But, do Music Educators know THEIRS?In this month's Question of the Month survey, we asked members how optimistic they were that music education will continue to be offered in K - 12 schools over the next 20 years. As of 11/19, the answers showed:
26% very optimistic; 31% optimistic; 27% somewhat optimistic; 9% not optimistic; 3% very pessimistic
Is this what the music student of the future will look like?!
We asked members to elaborate on their answers. Again, as of 11/19, here are a few choice responses (and there were many more describing the effects of the NCLB act on their deteriorating programs...)
Money Talks...if it's funded well (school system/booster organization), it will survive.
Schedules of students, teachers, and extra curricular activities are taking a toll on time. I find that many students want to be in extra groups, sectionals IF it is during the school day. I must blame much of it on television and video games, I find that guitar hero is very popular with students, I'm not sure that "Oboe Hero" would have the same effect.
As long as the world needs music, music will continue to taught in schools.
The last principal I worked under told me not to bother teaching the curriculum (sight singing, vocal technique, music history, etc.) just to make it fun for the kids as a release from their academic stress - needless to say, after banging my head against the wall for 7 years with that lack of cooperation by the administration, I quit and now teach privately!
If music education is not offered, students will loose out on so many brain and thinking and human expression opportunities, the social fabric of the country will just crumble. Oh wait, that's already happening. Seriously, at some point (hopefully, not too late) decision makers will see that test to oblivion is not serving our nation and will make steps to swing the curriculum back to the arts and social studies instead of just math and science. Skills taught in music education are already sought after. Eventually, political leaders will see this too and fund arts education.
We've been dumbed down as a nation. We now have people in charge who think that anyone who can speak in complete sentences are "elite," let alone anyone who knows about music and the arts... If music is not valued, music education won't be funded. And music is not valued in our society; it's seen merely as another consumer product, not as a natural means of expression, not as our heritage, not as our birthright. When I look at music education in countries like Finland or Germany, I could weep...Have you seen the Bobby McFerrin video, where he sings the piano part to the Schubert "Ave Maria," and the entire audience (thousands of people in a city square) sing the melody together, all the way through? Can you imagine that happening anywhere in our country? We're swimming upstream, and it's a mighty fierce current that's flowing in the opposite direction.
I have retired from public school music teaching and am now teaching music education classes at the college level. The young men and women who are teacher candidates are as enthusiastic as ever about their profession. If we help them in their early years of teaching by mentoring and by modeling good teaching practices, I have no doubt that the future of music education is secure. Whether it will remain an integral part of the public schools is more questionable, however. It is essential that the public make its expectations for continuing arts education known to those who fund and legislate education.
I feel as if I have been fighting "for music" for the last 43 years. Maybe that's the only way to keep it. American education will not survive without music ed.
As long as there is football, there's a need for a band show at halftime.
Band linked to sports will never go away....keep it connected to athletic contests, community celebrations (parades), awards events (graduation), etc.
Administrators love to use musical groups as a public relations tool.
Humanity's love for music will not die - it is part of who we are. The only reason I would worry is because there seem to be less and less people pursuing music education as a career, partially because it is so demanding, and largely because of the dismal pay scale in most places, especially in the early stages of teaching.
Music education has deteriorated over the past fifty years. As a result, school administrators generally have not had a rich music education, and so equate music with entertainment rather than as a deep and intellectually powerful discipline. The sheer number of skills developed by a musical education outstrips that of any other subject by far; yet it is the most undervalued subject. It is considered a "special" subject, a "minor" subject, an "elective" subject, but certainly not an academic subject. This ignorance is what we must deal with every day as music educators.
They will always need coverage for prep time for "core" ( I use that loosely) subject teachers
As teachers, we have been too limited. Music in American society is not as much about art as it is about making money and fame. Most has little to do with making good choices about meaningful, edifying use of the musical elements. Colleges need to teach our future teachers more about how to reach the musical soul.
We still have fathers forbidding sons from taking vocal music because it's wussy. (Even though my group has traditionally had a slew of football players, wrestlers, basketball players, etc.
I thought that this was a battle I could eventually stop fighting. I was wrong. I've been teaching 35 years. This one will be my last.
Music is part of the very fabric of life. I believe today's parents appreciate the quality and quantity of musical information/performance experiences offered now as opposed to when they were in school. Unfortunately, those who make budgetary decisions regarding public musical education often are non-musicians. It may be helpful to poll children on this, as they are the ones directly affected by these decisions. They have no agenda and can very succinctly get to the point of how much they would miss it.
This leads me to mention yet again (past posts....), the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra from Venezuela, "El Sistema", currently directed by Gustavo Dudamel, a 26 year old graduate of the program, who will soon lead the Los Angeles Philharmonic. In the last few weeks, as the Youth Orchestra has received much press and media attention during its U.K. and U.S. tour (recently playing Carnegie Hall), MENC received a few calls and emails, asking whether such a system could be sustained in the U.S., and why our music education "system" is so pale in comparison to the robust reach of the Venezulan organization. For the last 30 years, (to quote MB of MENC): "El sistema" has had a positive and pretty widespread effect in Venezuela, using music education as a vehicle both for music itself and for social equity." (for more info on El Sistema, see Dudamel's site HERE)What do YOU think? Comment below!
(And see theYouth Orchestra play "Mambo" from West Side Story at the Proms in London (their encore; they don red, yellow and blue Venezuelan flag colored jackets over their concert dress), and then the Shostakovich 10th Symphony);
and READ MORE about their performances HERE and HERE!
In future weeks, we'll be sharing more results from Question of the Month surveys, so keep an eye out! (eventually, hope to have a new Question of the Month Answer Archive page on the coming NEW OVERHAULED MENC website!)
Please see below for some interesting reads and a few hopefully fun and useful resources for your post-Turkey perusal!
Hoping your Thanksgiving is thankful and peaceful. Thank YOU for being part of MENC!
See you next week! SR
RESOURCES
Little Steven's underground garage: Rock n roll via Van Zandt of E. St. Band
Music for All Seasons: Live music performances to neglected communities
READ "THROUGH the EYES OF MUSICIANS" professional musicians' reactions to playing for the needy
THE ISRAEL PHILHARMONIC 70TH ANNIVERSARY GALA CONCERT TONIGHT, NOVEMBER 21 on PBS
(check local listings!)
Founded in 1936 by Polish violinist and Zionist Bronislaw Huberman, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra -- known at thattime as the Palestine Orchestra -- was established to save Jewish musicians in Europe from the imminent Holocaust. For a brief description of the program and highlights of what's included on its companion Web site at CLICK HERE
Founded in 1936 by Polish violinist and Zionist Bronislaw Huberman, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra -- known at thattime as the Palestine Orchestra -- was established to save Jewish musicians in Europe from the imminent Holocaust. For a brief description of the program and highlights of what's included on its companion Web site at CLICK HERE
SCHOOL of ROCK EXPANSION (with a video on line too! click HERE)
NO MUSIC DAY (in honor of SAINT CECILIA, the Patron Saint of Music and Church Musicians, whose day is NOVEMBER 22!)
BRAIN on MUSIC: The love of music is a human need for social interaction, says Clive Robbins
