During the reading and discussion concerning music as a curricular subject, I found myself both agreeing and disagreeing with the rush to make music more like, say, mathematics. Certainly I agree that music should have educational goals and students should be assessed on whether they master specific skills, not just whether they show up to rehearsal and avoid talking. Music is a serious subject in this manner and should be treated as such.
However, the idea of making music something more integral to the "required" or "core" curriculum got me thinking about the idea of a core curriculum in general. In my experience, school curricula often operate according to class counts. You have to take X credits of math, Y credits of science, Z credits of fine arts, and so on. This seems kind of silly, given the curricular spirit of testing benchmarks and achievement. Perhaps a better strategy would be to establish level requirements, but then allow those who reach the level requirements more academic freedom. After all, if multivariable calculus were considered necessary for all high school students, then we would not be letting students graduate without it.
This would have many benefits, especially considering the fact that one cannot learn everything. I may think that music is important and that everyone should love it, but another teacher may feel this way about painting, another about literature, another about philosophy, and so on. Thus, it becomes difficult to establish a compelling argument that all students should be constantly studying music when it would hedge out other options.
However, by allowing students more freedom, we can, as educators, better serve our students. At younger ages, yes, all students should have some sort of music class experience, but by high school, students can choose at least some of their education. Furthermore, we know that music is an important part of our students' lives. They spend a lot of time with it. If the students have the freedom from class count requirements and we offer music classes relevant to their musical lives, I am confident students will choose to take music classes.
I think this offers many other benefits as well. Students might feel more in control and thus more invested in their education. There is more motivation for students to attempt to complete higher level material as well, even in subjects they may not like. If the reward for completing single variable calculus is simply a class in multivariable calculus to complete the four year math count for a student uninterested in math, this might be seen as fatalistic and deflating. However, if the reward for completing pre-calculus is scheduling freedom, it might at least been seen as a goal.
Ultimately, a lot of parties would need to work together to make this kind of change possible, most significantly, colleges known for their enforcement of the "Rule of 20." However, if change were enacted in this direction, it would empower students with regard to their education. It would also follow the philosophy of curricular education by judging students based on measurable progress and establishing well defined body of skills to be mastered.
Sounds like a good idea to me, Matt. One of the problems we have in education is that what we are able to do is often dictated to us by politicians who often do not truly understand issues such as you've described. When the schools have to function is driven by politics, reforms like you are describing become almost an impossible dream. But, it is good to have dreams!
ReplyDelete