Philosophy of Music Education Kaitlin Borden Westminster Choir College April 2013 In my experiences as a student teacher at New Hope-Soleburys

middle school and high school, I have had the opportunity to work with students who have various levels of skill and interest. Through this experience my philosophy of teaching has somewhat changed. This version of my philosophy has been edited to reflect these changes, but also contains some of my original thoughts from my first philosophy of teaching from Summer 2010.

When a person walks into a music classroom, they expect to hear music. They also might expect to see the teacher leading the classroom in the rehearsal, making the musical decisions, deciding which parts of the piece need the most work, choosing the repertoire, and giving their interpretation of the pieces of music to the students. However, the latter expectation is not my idea of what should go on in a music classroom. I believe in giving students roles in these decision making processes and that these roles are what can make them independent musicians, whether they pursue music professionally or as amateurs. Progressive Teaching In the traditional pedagogy, an idea that Paulo Freire has termed banking dominates the methods of teaching. Banking is the absorbing of information for use on standardized tests, and teaching by talking at your students, as opposed to talking to them. It can lead to phenomenal grades on classroom assignments and high-stakes tests, but leads to poor retaining of information. Teaching should not involve assessing students through multiple choice testing. Bernice McCarthy (2000) believes that Assessment should encourage connecting relationships, and should lead to questions that are essential,

questions that go to the heart, that are contextual, [and] questions that when pondered, discussed, and answered, lead to essenceAssessment that leads to these things requires the honoring of both the inner and outer voices. [Teachers must] teach students to trust their own subjectivity while developing their objectivity with expert help. (152) Teaching should be a progressivealmost socialistprocess involving teachers and students both teaching and learning. Teaching should strive for equality between students and teachers, cultures, genders, and socio-economic status in order to liberate the system of education from what was taught yesterday (Wink, 27). Teaching should favor the autonomy of the students (Freire, 1998, 21), and should even gather some themes from Karl Marx. Marx hands us a mirror and makes us look at or traditional patterns of control in schooling, patterns that run along the lines of race, class, and gender (Wink, 95). In music education, the traditional pedagogy rears its head in forms such as rote learning. You can walk into a choir classroom to find the teacher playing each sections part and having the choristers sing back to them. It is my firm belief that critical thinking and musical autonomy must be cultivated in the music classroom. Musical Independence One of my strongest beliefs concerning music education is having a strong emphasis on music literacy. Being musically literate allows for spending less time going over notes in the classroom, giving more time to work on the musicality of pieces. This allowing more time for transformative moments through experiencing this musicality, and more time for critical thinking. As a choir teacher, I believe that understanding solfege is crucial. The understanding of intervals the application of solfege can give students will guide their abilities to read music until

they have reached fluency. Implementing the use of solfege or perhaps the entire Kodaly method is important at an early age, helping to develop the childs ear for intervals, preparing the student for success in reading music at higher difficulties. This ability would aid in their autonomous learning, as they would be less dependent on having their part given to them by rote. This kind of autonomy not only gives the students more time to think critically about the music they are participating in, but begins the path to musicianship. The Roles of a Teacher Inside the classroom, I believe it is a teachers role to break away from traditional teaching, and to structure their teaching to cater to all four of the McCarthy learning types. Traditional teaching often uses only one style of teaching: banking. However, not all children learn very well from this style. Teachers must find a way to teach their curriculum using different strategies that reach all of their students. Having knowledge of the 4MAT cycle is key to developing the four roles one must assume as a teacher. Outside the classroom, I believe it is a teachers role to become political. Todays education system would benefit from more teachers acting as lobbyists of sorts. Jonathan Kozols gave examples in The Shame of the Nation of Americas resegregation. In Savage Inequalities, Kozol writes What startled me the mostwas the remarkable degree of racial segregation that persisted almost everywhereI knew that segregation was still common in the public schools, but I did not know how much it had intensified Many people seemed to view the segregation issue as "a past injustice" that had been sufficiently addressed. Others

took it as an unresolved injustice that no longer held sufficient national attention to be worth contesting. (2-3) Marginalization and hegemony are not just happening inside of schools, but in the districting and funding of schools as well, for housing, health conditions, social factors, and other factors (27). It is the duty of a teacher to act against injustices such as these. Inclusive Repertoire In addition to prevent marginalization in the classroom, it is also important to include musics from diverse cultures. While I would still promote classical music, being a graduate of Westminster Choir College, I find it important to expose students to music from outside of Western culture. However, when doing music from outside of ones culture, it is important for one to undertake a large amount of research in order to the piece(s) authentically, or to hire a consultant from that culture for a workshop on the piece to achieve authenticity. Conclusion A music teacher has a very large role to fill. There is no case in which the teachers only duties are to lecture to their students and to prepare them for high stakes testing. This is what was stressed by the administration in the schools that I grew up in. As a future teacher, I strive to make up for the wrongs done to me by setting out to teach my future students in a more progressive way.

References: Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: The Continuum Pub. Freire, P. (1998). Pedagogy of freedom. Boston: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. Kozol, Jonathan. (2006). The Shame of the nation . New York: Three Rivers Press. Kozol, Jonathan. (1992). Savage inequalities . New York: Harper Perennial. McCarthy, Bernice. (2000). About Teaching: 4mat in the classroom . Wauconda, IL: About Learning, Incorporated. Wink, J. (2005). Critical Pedagogy: Notes from the Real World. 3rd Edition. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc.