A Personal Philosophy of Music Education

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A Personal Philosophy of Music Education

Few would argue against the idea that we educate ourselves and our society so that we have adequate means with which to understand and interact with elements of the world around us. Subjects such as mathematics, language, history, and the hard sciences are granted immediate and unquestioned legitimacy in our schools, and with good reason. We encounter each of these elements of our lives on a daily basis. We need to have an understanding of these disciplines in order to interact with them, otherwise they are meaningless to us. I submit that the same can be said for the fundamental concepts of music. Music is something that we encounter in our society every day. It surrounds us. Indeed it would be practically impossible to escape. Like so many other naturally occurring phenomena, a discipline has been developed over centuries to help us interact with music, and that discipline is what I and those of my profession are charged with teaching.

Before addressing the need for music instruction in our schools I would like to briefly examine the need for education of any kind. Education is a means of making sure our society has a given set of knowledge. The set of knowledge we perceive ourselves as needing changes based on our surroundings and the issues we are dealing with. In American education's early history we perceived ourselves as needing a set of knowledge that included a common language and common view of history, as well as knowledge of those things with which we would interact every day. In many ways early public education was more a means of social control than an altruistic endeavor. In today's climate we see ourselves as having more diverse needs in our education...

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...ure we have a musically literate society. There are many more examples of this commitment throughout our history.

Essentially I believe that in today's society music literacy is a necessary skill for us all to have to successfully encounter and interact with the world around us. Reasons for teaching music as a school subject are consistent with the reasons that we educate ourselves about anything else. Furthermore, we have shown a commitment in the past to creating a musically literate society, and events in today's world only strengthen the need to continue that commitment.

Works Cited

Lebuta, Joseph A. & Smith, Deborah A. Music Education: Historical Contexts and Perspectives. (1997) Upper Saddle River, NJ. Prentice Hall.

Lehman, Paul R. et all. The School Music Program: A New Vision. (1994). Reston, VA. Music Educators National Conference.

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