This is a response I just submitted for my MLL class in a unit on advocating for family and community engagement in math and science pedagogy.
his module landed in my lap at exactly the right time. It felt a bit strange to me to read about the importance of engaging families, community resources, and creating public-facing opportunities because that all is fundamental to what we do in music ensembles. Individual success is secondary to group success; cooperation is integral; and our end product is a public performance. Families are engaged throughout the process as they go to music stores, lessons, concerts, youth symphony, summer camps, and other opportunities.
I say this assignment came at the right time because on Monday, May 12, I had the conductor of the Federal Way Symphony come to work with my junior high and high school orchestras. I have been a member of the FWS for almost 15 years (outside of school I perform regularly as a professional classical musician). As a member of the group, I get a certain number of complimentary tickets to each performance and I've gotten in the habit of giving these away to my students and their families, I've had more than a few families enjoy the experience so much that they've paid to return on their own accord: one student brought three friends along for his birthday! The executive director, conductor, and I set up an opportunity for the conductor to come and conduct my orchestras for a dayLinks to an external site..
Looking back, I wonder what I could have done to make this opportunity a bit more friendly for MLL students. The conductor was, however, quite good at demonstrating physically (either by tapping, singing, miming, or otherwise moving) the kinds of sounds or performance techniques that he was trying to get out of the group, and a few of my students even remarked on this.
I do consider my students at every level to be musicians, and I repeatedly refer to them as "musicians" and (collectively) as "orchestra." What might seem to be an insignificant difference in labeling I think conveys a powerful message about who the students are and what they are capable of both individually and collectively. I am also in a fortunate position to teach at the elementary, junior high, and high school level and I do my best to create opportunities for the younger students to hear the older students perform so that they can see what is possible. In some instances, I recruit my high school students to help tune, coach, or play alongside the younger students. I've also created opportunities for my high school students to travel to college campuses to work with their orchestra teachers, talk to music students, and observe college orchestra rehearsals.
A few questions came to my mind in reading the Cannon et al. article. The first question--and one that has come to mind throughout this class--is how could some of these strategies be adapted for secondary classrooms? Much of what is presented in this (and the Tan et al. article as well) seem geared toward elementary classrooms. Second, the internet resources and general context is very out of date: what are some ways these ideas and resources could be updated? And finally, given the funding cuts that seem to be happening in all aspects of our government, how are some of these educational programs going to survive, much less thrive, in the current political climate?
To conclude, I was having a conversation on social media with some colleagues about some of what I've described above. I mentioned the point that music teaches so many fundamental life skills that we seem to need to "build in" to other subjects--skills like SEL, collaboration, empathy, engagement with the public--that I wonder why music (and the other arts) are so frequently marginalized. Many are quick to make the argument that "music is important because it makes kids better at math."* But I challenge you to consider turning that statement on its head and thinking about your response: "math is important because it makes kids better at music." It probably sounds silly to you, but think about exactly why it sounds silly.
*The so-called "Mozart effect"--that listening to Mozart's music increases spatial reasoning and general intelligence--has been widely discredited but the myth surrounding it persists.