Johanna Siebert thinks that right now is a great time to be a music educator.

“With such attention being paid to the importance of recently defined twenty-first-century skills, music teachers are uniquely situated to exert an informed influence on the development of many qualities in their students,” Siebert says.

Why are these important? According to Siebert,

• Creativity and innovation, critical thinking and problem solving, and communication and collaboration are described as essential skills for our future workforce [see the Partnership for 21st-Century Skills], and proficiency in these areas is a direct outcome of what we teach.
   
• By participating in our programs over many years, music students not only develop executive and performance skills, they also gain a growing facility for self-directed learning, an understanding of relationships of parts to the whole, and—ultimately—individualistic interpretation and composition.
   
• Developing whole-brain, imaginative thinking is an important product of involvement in high-quality music programs. Individuals as diverse as Harvard professor of education Howard Gardner, author Daniel H. Pink, and New York Times columnist Tom Friedman agree it’s vital for success in our dynamic global economy.
   

In a future Higher Ed / Admin / Research Web article, Siebert will describe how her school’s program helps students learn these skills.

MENC member Johanna Siebert is director of the arts for Webster Central School District, Webster, New York.

--Ella Wilcox, August 12, 2009, © MENC: The National Association for Music Education (www.menc.org)

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