MENC Forums

I sort of touched on this in one of my replies to the "tee tees" thread (you're right Katie, it was really getting off topic, thanks for starting a new topic!), which I've copied below.  I think, too, that this especially needs to be addressed at the university level as a part of undergraduate music education coursework.  ALL candidates for a music education degree need to be made aware of research that's been done in childhood musical development regardless of whether or not they plan to eventually go on to work at the early childhood or elementary level, because the experiences of students in their elementary/developmental stage has an impact on their achievement at the secondary level.  This developmental information needs to be taught, not just stuff about methodology or how to write lesson plans, because unless we know HOW kids learn music, trying to teach them is an uphill battle frustrrating for both the child and the teacher.   I did not find out any of this until AFTER I graduated, got a job teaching general music, and embarked on a masters program concentrating in elementary methods plus further research/reading that I've done.  I got none of this important info as part of my bachelor's coursework, and in fact.... my experience was similar to yours, Katie, I went to college with the goal of being a band director, actually taught band for 4 years, and also... my boss whose band job I resigned from gave me the same kind of attitude, that I was taking a "lesser" position in going to teach general music.  I basically took the job initially to get into the public school pension system (and wasn't really enjoying teaching band as much as I thought I would)... and really had little to no background about general music, not much in the way of methodology in my college classes.   The professor that taught my "elementary methods" classes was primarily a band guy, the director of bands at the college, and although he had a doctorate in music education had hardly had any experience teaching elementary general music at all (and what he had had was decades ago), and NO training in any methodologies and didn't give us any info at all on childhood musical development.  Now, I can only say that this was just MY experience and I do know now of some other undergraduate programs that have a very intensive elementary methods course that addresses all this important information (such as where I took my masters, West Chester University, and also Westminster Choir College and I think Temple University have very good undergraduate courses on elementary methods, I would also assume Hartt School of Music since that's where John Feierabend is based.  If only I could go back in time....).  But... I think in some places there is still an attitude among the "performance track" faculty that general music isn't as prestigious as instrumental or choral music is, and of course this attitude rubs off on students... and then when teachers get hired into programs that have competitive bands or choirs and start to win awards, that just validates this attitude (what I do is more important than what you do, because look at all these trophies my group has won.  How many trophies have YOU won?). 

Also, my own personal experience with general music as a child, as probably many people's experience of my generation and older (I was in elementary school in the 70's and my music teachers were both reaching retirement age, so I doubt they'd had any training in Kodaly or Orff or other specific methodology and I don't think certification courses in these methodologies were very common back before that time as they were just being introduced in the US), was very mediocre and uninspiring.  SEVERAL adults have told me that their music teacher when they were a kid told them just to mouth the words at concerts, or singled them out and made them feel bad because they couldn't match pitch, or just that music class was just boring or they learned meaningless information.  If this is most other people's experience, including our colleagues who teach band, choir, orchestra, etc. who also haven't had much in depth training about the various methodologies or musical development/aptitude, it's no wonder they think our jobs aren't as important as ours.  I think it's just been in the last generation that child-developmental based methodologies/approaches such as Kodaly, Orff, Gordon, etc. that are both enjoyable and address concrete musical concepts have been in wide use.  And even so, unless someone goes out of their way to take a methodology course you don't really get the in-depth information about how to utilize them so some people try to use methodologies with only part of the information - like someone said, using solfege or rhythm sylalbles and then thinking you're teaching with the Kodaly approach and then getting a negative attitude about it because it's not working. 

I have occasionally been checking out the Band message board and now and then I read a comment that just seems so off base as to what general music teachers do or questions about "why is my band having trouble with this basic skill like keeping a steady beat" - and I have not been afraid to put my 2 cents in about how important adequate musical experiences PRIOR to performing ensembles are.  Maybe some of them think I'm just some nut-case sticking my nose in where I don't belong, but I have also had a few positive responses to what I have to say - after all I have had experience teaching band as well as general music.  I think it's great that we as professionals have this forum to communicate with each other and I think it's important that we occasionally check out what everyone else is doing whether or not it affects us a great deal.  So... I guess the best way to approach this is to just keep the lines of communication open first in our own districts and spreading outward, and hopefully also for universities to get some really great elementary methods faculty who can present this information well and change attitudes. 

-----------
This was my previous post about how we can change attitudes:

Through regular meeting and collaboration on stuff like curriculum and other issues that affect the music department district wide.  I am fortunate to work in a district that gives us in-service time throughout the year and for some of this we are expected to meet as a department and discuss issues that affect us and make sure curriculum is updated.  The middle and high school teachers know what and how I teach because we talk about it.  In fact, most of the other music teachers in the district have seen me teaching - the H.S. choir teacher is my accompanist so he is present at some of my rehearsals, the M.S. choir/gen. music teacher has observed me teaching as part of a professional development activity, and the elem. band teacher has observed me as well as I am his mentor this year (and, the former teacher who also taught MS/HS band previously worked in my building and... basically since we share a room they have no choice but to occasionally see me teaching!), so they can see how what it do fits into the big picture of their students' music education.  Plus, when we get the chance to talk, I can explain a little bit about the approach and philosophy behind what I do, and some of the research I've read - which of course most of them don't have much contact with being immersed in performance-oriented classes - and usually the response is, "I didn't know that, that's really interesting, that really makes sense..." because they're working with older kids and don't have the experience with younger kids and how important it is.  Plus... I have had 4 of our H.S. choir teacher's own children go through (or are currently going through) my general  music program because they also live in the district, and the kids come home singing songs or telling him about stuff they've learned - so he can get the 'dope' right from his kids as to how much they're learning.

Last edited by Christine Nowmos (2008-06-18 17:41:59)

I don't know why this hierarchy exists but I will admit that I bought into it all the way until I took elementary methods in college.  Up until then I felt like I didn't want to "just" teach elementary music.  Fortunately I had an amazing Music Ed professor who showed me that elementary music teachers often teach a lot MORE music than their choral or instrumental colleagues.  Once my mind was opened I was open to accepting some elementary jobs, which I have found very challenging and satisfying although in a much different way than instrumental music.