All children deserve good music education
Published: June 24, 2009
The Charlottesville community is today thriving, in part, because of the music industry, yet we have children growing up in Albemarle County who couldn’t identify a viola or who have not any concept that music could be a meaningful career choice.
The Albemarle County School administration and the School Board have not, and do not, really consider music a priority in education. The Music Matters Advocacy Group would like to change that.
Music Matters, formed this spring, is composed of a large contingency of parents, educators and musicians who have un-covered some serious flaws that stand in the way of music education.
We recommend coordinating the middle and high schools’ schedules so that we might build full-time music positions that guarantee oversight over our music offerings.
Like Charlottesville City Schools, we would like to require that sixth-graders make the choice between chorus, band, orchestra or art for their elective. Sixth grade is the time to expose children to serious music study, and by requiring it, the investment in it is a realistic one.
Currently, Albemarle County schools offer music differently, and some schools are significantly more successful both with participation and, particularly, with outcomes.
We see “specialty centers” as a hindrance to quality education for all. These are the result of a county policy in which schools “specialize” in a chosen discipline.
But if there is success in one school in a discipline, it should be emulated in another — rather than allowing some communities to simply overlook certain academic departments because “there isn’t any interest.” Equivalent “products” should be available in all our schools. Good-quality music instruction, as a priority, should be available in every middle and high school.
If you think of the Albemarle County schools as a large corporation, with many divisions and staff, I would say that the music division, in some locations, is failing. Our/your investment is below par and has somehow fallen under the radar and needs immediate attention. We don’t have to invent anything new, but rather make some strategic changes that enhance music education.
Please let us help and strive together for a new and better way to make music education a serious commitment.
Martha Redinger
Albemarle County
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Reader Reactions
I imagine that one could argue for a host of education-worthy school subjects. Music and performing arts have a lot of value—how best to introduce young people to them?
I don’t know that an arts or music requirement serves a purpose. however, I can see the possibility of incorporating arts and music into the curriculum hundreds of ways that could prove more meaningful. We learn how to read and write (hopefully), and in the process learn the differences between poetry, prose, expository writing, etc. I can think of many ways that music relates to math, science, history, and literature—not to mention language. Perhaps the best way of incorporating appropriate learning expereinces is by using the gifts and talents present in the community creatively, along with media and technology, to serve a broad spectrum of students. I recall learning US History at some point by having us students explore topics independently and bring them back to the classroom to share—allowing us the freedom of choice, learning some research and presentation skills, and in most cases, nurturing the learning process. After all, learning ought to be something we are trained to do, because we will need to do it all of our lives. Anyway, forcing my sons to chose what they saw as the lesser of four elective evils produced two very bored, and bad, tuba players. On the flip side, my daughter learned dance after school, then through opportunities designed by several creative teachers, was able to share her love, her skills, her enthusiasm for dance with fellow students—on one ocassion teaching her class basic ballet moves. for more specialized training, how can we partner schools with practitioners (artists/entrepeneurs) in a way that supports arts education?
It is a difficult time for all school districts indeed and it should come as no surprise that music (and arts funding in general) is the first to be cut. However, if music education professionals had done a better job of marketing their wares outside of academia, we would not be in the position of depending on academia for our very existence. It may be time to allow music programs to die in the schools in order to save the entire profession. Perhaps then, our colleges will begin telling the truth to future music teachers; ‘your job currently relies on school districts willing to pay you and it doesn’t look good’. The next step is to prepare these future educators to think globally, more like entrepreneurs and to be tech savvy so that the entire profession can move forward. Just one man’s opinion!
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