Last week I was given the privilege of
speaking at a conference on the campus of Princeton University presented by the
New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association and the Foundation for
Educational Administration. The
three-day event was underwritten by the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation.
The conference theme, Using Arts-Infused Instruction to Enhance NJ’s Learning Standards, provided
all of the artist-speakers with an opportunity to advocate for just how their
art form can be used to advance the core curriculum standards of New Jersey’s
Public Schools.
I am product of public education. While it’s true that I received a very intense
music education at St. Peter’s Choir School in Philadelphia, grades 4-7, the
remainder of my secondary education was in a public school – Abraham Lincoln
High School. The musical studies and
activities offered at Lincoln were typical for the 1960’s.
The emphasis
was on teaching music performance. There
were two concert choirs, a chamber choir, two small chamber choral ensembles,
two concert bands, a marching band, a jazz band, two orchestras…and an annual
musical. Sounds like a lot, doesn’t it? But, for 5,000 total students, these
ensembles involved a bit more than 500 students or 10% of the student body.
What was atypical at Lincoln, compared to any of Philadelphia’s other high
schools at the time, was the presence of Saul Feinberg, my mentor. Using the two-year
general music requirement, Saul taught aesthetic
music listening skills (as opposed to music performance listening skills) to the remaining 90% of the student
body.
How should
we teach music? Music instruction
offered in schools should ideally mirror
the three basic musical behaviors – creating (composing or improvising),
performing and listening (from an
aesthetic viewpoint.)
In a perfect world, all students in school would receive instruction in composing/improvising,
performing and listening. Each year,
from Kindergarten through Middle School, very specific standards could be set
for each grade level.
For example, by the end of 1st
grade, every child will: be able to improvise
in song or on an Orff xylophone a simple ostinato (creation); be able to sing a simple melody transmitted in
Kodaly hand signals (performance); be able to recognize a simple ternary form (listening).
Such a curriculum would produce a musically
literate society, capable of performing, reading and inventing music – and most
importantly – emotionally connecting with and appreciating, as listeners, the
greatest music our society has produced regardless
of genre – classical, jazz, pop, world or
era – from medieval to the present.
But we don’t live in an ideal world. And in the very real world of schools, many
music curriculums are entirely
performance oriented or nearly so.
Music education means: little children with
violins in hand; kids singing in choirs and playing in bands; and performing in
annual Broadway shows.
And all of that is very important, and not to be taken for granted where it exists –
given the cuts to arts programs that we have experienced in recent decades.
But, short of offering comprehensive music
education (encompassing all three musical behaviors), might we consider
offering aesthetic music listening to all
students, performers and non-performers alike?
This is what I proposed to my audience of Principals and Supervisors in
Princeton.
We have some follow-up planned. Stay tuned.