Kaitlyn Laprise

Reaction Paper to V2020 Chapter 4

Jellisons work raises interesting questions about our current curriculum
decisions and their impact on our students continued lifelong music participation. I
am sure that the majority of music educators want their students to have
meaningful musical experiences after they leave their class, but are we really giving
them the skills and experiences they need in order to pursue musical opportunities
throughout their lives? For that matter, how often do music educators even actively
participate in music experiences outside of their job? Have we developed the skills
necessary for music to transfer into our non-professional lives? What skills are
necessary for students to continue their participation in music? The questions raised
by Jellisons paper have strong implications for the future of our field, and call for a
restructuring of our curriculum so that our programs better meet the most
important goals we have for our students.
Jellisons statement that adults are, in a sense, artifacts of education past
has important implications for consideration. I am disheartened by the statistic that
a large percentage of parents felt that it was not worthwhile to invest in an
instrument unless their child showed signs of some kind of talent. What are we
doing wrong in our field to perpetuate the notion that only talented people should
be involved in music? Were these parents lead to believe that they should or
shouldnt participate in music based on their level of talent? Jellison points to
studies that show that parental encouragement is one of the strongest influences on
a childs participation in music, but if a vast majority of adults see music as
something they just did as children, they are less likely to consider it to be essential
in their childs education, which leads to music being of only secondary importance
in our schools. If, instead, we can educate our students to value music as a

permanently positive part of their own lives, they will support music in their future
childrens education more strongly.
Consideration of Jellisons Principles of Transition is necessary in order to
determine the experiences and skills which are important for our students lifelong
participation in music. We cannot simply hope that students are inferring
transferrable skills from every experience we give them. Therefore, as Jellison
argues, we need to determine our K-12 curriculum based on the skills that they will
need in order to continue in music as adults. Jellisons third principle reminded me
of a workshop called the Red Badge of Coverage that I heard at an MMEA
conference which said that deep understanding of a few, essential topics is more
important than covering a wide range of topics which theyll forget as soon as they
leave our classroom. We cannot just add to our current curriculum in order to
accomplish goals of transfer more successfully, because covering more things in
less depth does not foster transfer. Instead, we need to find ways to achieve some
of our existing goals through means which are more meaningful for transfer into
adulthood. It also necessitates an adjustment of our curriculum to include only what
is truly meaningful for life-long participation and might mean eliminating some
things that tradition has deemed important for years. This more honest look at what
skills are truly necessary for our students might be very uncomfortable for a lot of
educatorsmyself includedbut it is an essential conversation to have if we believe
in the value of music as a part of our students future.
To incorporate Jellisons principles into my future instrumental classroom, I
first want to develop a unit where students work in small groups and select or
compose a piece to play together with the only stipulation being that they must
transpose at least one part to fit their instrumentation. They transpose or compose,

rehearse, and perform their pieces on their own for the class, and write a reflection
on what they learned from the process and how they might be able to do something
similar in the future. Second, I want to make seeing performanceswhether taking
them to concerts, bringing in guest artists, or requiring attendance at concerts
given by the schools other ensemblesa regular part of my curriculum. I would
prepare them for these performances with research about the performance ahead of
time, and the students would need to reflect on their thoughts about the
performance either in writing or discussion. Lastly, I would like to incorporate some
listening projects in class where students reflect about the pieces and their
experience of a performance in this setting in comparison to live music
performances.