Philosophy of Music Education
Teachers are some of the most important people in a child’s life. In today’s society, sometimes school teachers are a child’s only teachers. Some parents are now leaving the raising of their child to teachers and the school district. While I do not agree with this, I believe that students need both parents and teachers in their lives. I can only try to guide my students as much as I can. I believe that music is a very important subject because everywhere you go there is music. It is important that teachers teach students, then their subject. Teachers have to be encouraging, care about their students, and take the time to get to know them.
Music is such an important thing. It is everywhere. There are so many different kinds of music that there is something for everyone. I believe that all students should have some music teaching in their life. Students should be required to have music classes from elementary school through their first year of high school. I think if they had a year of music at the high school level, then more students would stick with music after that year. The transition to high school for many students is hard and scarey. Often students quit music groups because they do not know what to expect when they get to high school. I think that requiring them to take a music class would keep more students in music.
Teachers must teach students first, then their subject matter. I once had a teacher that at the end of the year he said, “I hope that I have taught you something this year, not just in music but in life too.” I will never forget that speech, and many others like it that he made in the two years that I had him as my band director. He will forever be in my heart because he did not just teach music; he taught students, taught about life, and most important he took the time to get to know us. He could tell when something was wrong with one of his students, and he would talk to them about it. He always made time in his busy schedule for that.
To many students, music is not the most important thing in their life. In fact, many other things play into students’ lives, for example: Homecoming, parents get divorced, someone in the family dies, depression, the Prom, moving to another school district, drugs, alcohol, etc. There are so many factors that affect their lives. They affect students easily, and many times their minds will not be focused on what is being taught. The classroom should be a place where they can forget their problems and concentrate on their work. It is a hard thing for a teacher to do, but it can be done. I have seen it done by some teachers. They captured my attention and would not let it go. They could tell when I was upset or when something was not right because they had taken the time to get to know me. I do believe that is one of the most important elements in the student-teacher relationship. The best teachers I have had were ones that cared about me and showed it. However, it was a result of taking the time to get to know me.
Teachers of older students need to think about what the student wants. Not all students feel the same way about music. For some, it is their life. For others, it is just something they do. Then there are those students whose parents make them take music. Each student has different, individual needs. Teachers need to recognize and support those needs because they may not get that support from anywhere else.
Students also have to be encouraged. Teachers that do not encourage and compliment their students from my experience are usually bad teachers. It is proven that people’s self-esteem was higher when they were in kindergarten than later in life. I feel it is a teacher’s job to try to make students feel good about themselves. School is sometimes the only place that students can feel good about themselves. Encouragement also helps to take care of behavior problems. If a student is made to feel important, they are less likely to disrupt the class.
Music is in everyone’s lives, and everyone should have some sort of music in their background. But I think that good teachers should teach students first, and their subject second. They care about their students and they take time to get to know them. In high school and college, teachers have to support the student’s wants and needs. Students also have to be encouraged, and made to feel important as this will help take care of some disruption problems in classrooms.
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