Dr. B's Wonderful World of Music

Music for Music’s Sake   While there are many great reasons for students to be involved in music for its ancillary benefits in helping boost performance in other academic areas, is that the only reason music should be part of the curriculum in K-12 schools? We don’t approach English classes by telling students that reading Shakespeare will help students in their algebra class, or that studying quadratic equations will help students in their history class (and I’m not just pulling those examples randomly, I think a case can be made for both!). So let’s take the ancillary out of the equation for now and let’s look at reasons why music should be studied for its own sake. Probably the biggest hurdle in advocating for any of the arts (music, literature, visual arts, theatre) is that far too many people don’t see a “practical” application. By this they usually mean that they don’t see an immediate financial benefit. This is the perennial debate when it comes to funding school pro...

  Dr. B’s Wonderful World of Music Premier post 24 October 2024  My thoughts on music education   Most people have to take some sort of music in their school lives. Often they start with grade school singing, sometimes the singing devolves into shouting. (But what can one do: they’re seven year olds!) Then in middle school students are often given the choice of band or choir. If they’re lucky they may have an orchestra option. I am of two opinions over this approach, and I have never come to a satisfying conclusion about it. My quandary is this: given that music is a core subject according to national standards, and thus should be taught to every student just like English, Mathematics, Science, et al, but also given that students who do not wish to participate in performing ensembles either passively or actively act to sabotage music classes, is it better to require all students to participate in music, or is it better to let them opt out and only teach music to stu...