Brittany McCollum

Why Music?
Philosophy of Music Education
Due: 3-24-15

If a random selection of people were chosen to give their own definition of

love, fear or anger, each of their answers would be slightly different. Why? Each
person has a different personal experience with each of these words. If the same
group of people were asked to define music, again, there would be multiple
personal examples of what music means to those participants. But isnt that the
beauty of music and deep emotions and feelings? They all have same basic
underlying principles, but can mean something different to each and every one of
us. Do we teach these deep emotions to our children? How do they learn them?
How do we teach something so intangible, but that is a part of our natural human
condition? We cannot teach these things. Our children must learn from experience
and we must lead by example in order for them even to begin to understand.
I paired music with these emotions because music is also intangible, and can
have multiple meanings ranging in depth to different people. So why should we
attempt to teach music in schools? Music itself might be intangible, however,
playing and writing music is something with which we can interact. We can touch
most instruments, we can see the musical notation; we can recreate something
intangible with our minds and bodies. I believe every child deserves to see, hear,
and learn to understand the beauty of music through the leadership of a highly
talented music educator that values the beauty and complexity of music his or
herself.

Music is a part of the human condition. It is in all of us. Geoffrey Miller says
Music is universal across all known cultures (Elliot & Silverman, 2014). Music is
like a cultural fingerprint; each culture has music within it, but it can be, and is
used differently throughout each culture, and can be traced back for thousands of
years. How do we explain that? Traditions seem to come and go, but music has
stayed. Why? Personally, this tells me that music is something so powerful that it
should not be ignored.
I believe in the total education of a child. There are many different
intelligences that are addressed in the public school systems, such as math,
science, reading, and history. Music is also an intelligence, and if left out of a
childs education are we keeping them from a total education? Seeing that music is
a part of the human condition, I believe that if we leave music out of our general
education curriculum, then we are indeed doing an injustice to our children.
The beauty of the human race is that we are all different. We have different
beliefs, values, interests and opinions, but we all come together to help each other
in an attempt to make our lives run smoothly. With the differences of interests
comes the differences in talents. Some people are gifted at science; it interests
them to conduct experiments in order to reason through why things in our universe
occur in certain ways. What if science was taken out of the general education
curriculum, and put to the side for only those who were interested and talented
enough to study it privately? What would those students do to fulfill that void if
their entire school day had nothing to do with their interests? This is just one
instance, but the main point behind this example is by having a well-rounded day

for our students, it gives them multiple outlets to express the variety of interests
they have.
Music can create an outlet for students to express emotions that they are
unable or unwilling to express out loud. Most people can think back on an
experience of being moved by music. Whether it was through a live, recorded, or
personal performance, something unexplainable overwhelmed and moved them.
Can we pin point what it was that moved them emotionally? Again, it depends on
the person and their current state when receiving the music. Something about the
words, melody, rhythm, or instruments could have moved them, but it could and
will be different for almost everyone. The great thing about music is the fact that
we cannot pin point the exact thing that moves us so deeply; it is a mystery. It is
this mystery that, in my opinion, keeps music alive.
How empowering would it be to be able to learn how to recreate something
that made you feel such a strong feeling or emotion? By learning to sing, play an
instrument, or listen critically we can learn to recreate that moment, or create new
moments for others. Lao Tzu, the Chinese founder of Taoism, [says] If you give a
man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a
lifetime. (Elliot & Silverman, 2014). By teaching our students how to recreate and
understand music and musical notation, they are fulfilled with that knowledge for a
lifetime. Even if they decide not to make music their career focus, they will forever
carry the musical experiences they shared with their peers and music educator.
Personally, my music program in elementary, middle, and high school made
me the person that I am today. I had two opposite experiences that confirmed my

decision to become a music educator. Mrs. Smith was my elementary school music
teacher, and did a wonderful job catering to her students needs. I always enjoyed
and looked forward to music class each week. In fifth grade, the option of
performing in band became available. My dad was the band director for grades 512, and being the daddys girl that I am, I signed up right away. I had my dad for
band and chorus through my sophomore year of high school. For my junior and
senior year of high school, we got a new choir director, as my dad took another job
in a different school district. This teacher majored in piano performance and was
very much in the dark on how to teach a high school choir. Naturally, this made me
frustrated. However, it was this frustration that confirmed my decision to become a
music teacher. I wanted to make sure that I gave students the proper music
education they deserved.
The goal and purpose of having music in schools is not to shove one more
piece of knowledge down our students throat, it is, just as other subjects, to create
an appreciation and understanding for the subject. There is no expectation that
each student should or will become the next Mozart or Bruno Mars. However, it is
my expectation that everyone deserves an opportunity to explore their interests
and talents, and if those interests and talents happen to be music, then that
student will value their music program, and get out of it what he or she may. It
might even be the drive they need to get them through school or difficult times in
their life. Everyone needs an outlet.

References

Elliot, D. & Silverman, M. (2014). Music Matters: A New Philosophy of Music

Education, Second Edition. New York. Oxford University Press.