Rolling with the Changes - Part 2
We all realize that there are lies we encounter ever day. “I’m fine.” “I have read and agree to the Terms of Service.” “This is the way we have always done it.” There are a multitude of reasons we choose to tell them. Perhaps we do not trust the person listening to understand our reasoning. Maybe we are impatient, or we are bored by the language used. We might be afraid it will be over our heads and that we will not understand. We are likely defensive, or we are simply allowing our minds to be lazy.
Principle Number 1 - The “Way We Have Always Done It” is NOT the way we have always done it.
Music education has been around for a long time. Plato wrote about it’s importance, the Schola Cantorum was founded in the fourth century, and singing classes have been a part of public schools since the nineteenth century. However, the public face of most school music programs - school bands, orchestras, and show choir ensembles - are largely creations of the last 100 years. They are a small blip on the timeline of music education history.
In many programs, ensembles serve as curators of a standard repertoire. We play a Sousa March, an orchestral transcription, and a few works from the accepted canon. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this approach. I agree that our students need to be exposed to the literature that has lead us to establish the programs we know and love. However, we should not pretend that this is the only way to musically educate students. It is certainly not what Beethoven, Mozart, or Bach did. It’s not what most musicians around the world have done throughout music history.
Students benefit from hearing a wide variety of music and should learn to appreciate music from a variety of cultures and people groups. They must be taught how to listen. Indeed, learning to listen may be one of the most important skills a student needs to develop in our current climate. It is important that students understand that there are more ways to approach music theory than solely through the lens of 18th century, European, male composers. Students need to practice transcription and composition. They should be performing music of their own making with different types of ensembles and instrumentations. They should be learning how to speak the language of music rather than just how to reproduce the works of those that have gone before them. As important as the reading of great literature is, reading is not the only means we use to teach language. We must engage our creative minds to figure out ways to include these experiences in our classrooms.
I am not suggesting that we should do away with the large ensemble experience in our schools. However, we must stop pretending that large ensemble performance is all there is to educating a student. Successful music education should include exposure to great composers - both living and historical. However, if that’s all a student gets, it is not really an education.
We cannot afford to limit our thinking by imposing false choices on ourselves. We have other options that should be explored. The possibilities are limitless. We owe it to our students to avoid falling into the lie that we have always done things in this manner.
