Philosophy of Education

I first picked up a trumpet when I was in 4th grade, and I've held that instrument close ever since. True, I wasn't the best pupil back then. My attention span was short, my creative drive untapped. Because I didn't focus as I should have (and now wish I had), my appreciation for music and my musicianship got off to an unimpressive start. Fortunately, middle school introduced me to Ms. Angela Woo, a band teacher who captured my wandering attentions and directed them to the mastery of my trumpet and the musical possibilities that instrument opened up. I was also privileged to work with Adam Bhatia, from whom I learned more about the trumpet's mysteries and music's benefits. In the most golden rule of purposes, I now want to do for others what these teachers did for me.

When I first contemplated a career as a music educator, I approached teaching as something to be done "by the books." In particular, I drew initially on methods articulated by Norman Dello Joio and Mary Helen Richards (Campbell & Scott-Kassner, 2013). From my understanding, these theories point to the importance of introducing music at a young age, and how a teacher might do that without giving young students “cognitive overload”. Subsequently, I sought to adopt elements from Carl Orff's theories (Shamrock, 1986). These emphasize encouraging young musicians to experiment with improvisation and composition as a means to develop their musicality and allow them to more readily comprehend concepts in music.

In the classroom, I have witnessed a teacher who utilized Orff's methodology to excellent effect: students intuitively grasped difficult topics such as pitch, rhythm, and even timbre. Most remarkable, these were kindergarteners! Where I had learned music on the page in a "sight before sound" fashion, these young students learned by ear, which I now see as a better way to develop musicianship. I believe this because after being trained through notation myself, I feel as though I have been limited by what I see rather than what I hear, and music is all about listening. With additions to music education that include Jazz, and therefore improvisation, all the more reason to incorporate “sound before sight” tactics. The practice of active listening, as well as a practical approach to notation, best enables students to realize what my mother has always maintained: 'music is a language like any other."

In learning how to be a music educator, I have been exposed to a pedagogical practice that provides equity in learning, or education from a social justice lens. As a social justice educator, I believe it is important to empower students whose voices have so often been stifled, censored, or silenced. We have too many schools in this nation that perpetuate harmful discourse against students, like deficit modeling and discrimination. From my understanding of Social identity theory (Hahn Tapper, 2013), students develop self-conceptualized ideas from being in social groups, or cliques. I believe that while cliques and social groups can be harmful in how they create a sense of “othering”, or an exclusion of people, they can also be beneficial in how they help people self-conceptualize their own social identity. One of the reasons I want to teach high school is because I know that students in this age group are figuring out who they want to be in life, and what they can offer to society, and I want to help facilitate this growth.

I know that whatever school I may end up at will have its own trials and tribulations. I cannot pretend, for instance, that discrimination and deficit thinking, along with issues of poverty and violence, don’t frequent schools across America. As a social justice educator, it is my job to use asset-modeling and practices of equity (Sensoy & DiAngelo, 2017) to ensure that every student is given a fair chance to succeed. I must remove any previously held biases towards students of various backgrounds. At the end of the day, my job is to provide a good music education that cultivates creativity and brews success in students within and out of my class. This will be a challenge but nevertheless something I wish to commit my life to, because ultimately I know that in order for me to be the best music teacher I can be, I must commit to being the best social justice educator I can be.

In my own experiences I have benefited from participating in all the ensembles I could have in high school, but most notably marching band. I never felt like a “popular kid”, but in marching band none of that mattered. What I have always enjoyed about being a “band kid” is although we would find our own group of friends within the band, the band as a whole always felt like one big family. It is easy to see that my own music education has had an effect on me that goes beyond music-making or partaking; music has made my life rich with great friends for so many years. Taking this a step further, I believe that giving a space for students to form their own social groups, while at the same time coming together as a class when necessary, is both beneficial to the classroom environment as it is to student self-conceptualization. It is this concept of communal intentionality (Tomasello, 2019) that guides me as a music and social justice educator, and what I hope to achieve as one.

To promote this philosophy in action, I know I will have to set my ground rules clearly and concisely on day 1, and hold a zero-tolerance policy to any form of bullying, which could disrupt what should be a 24/7 safe space. In addition to this, I believe by exposing students to various cultures of music and music that doesn’t fall along the Western spectrum, I will in turn encourage students to have an open-mind. An open-mind that will do away with direct or indirect discriminatory behavior, and seek to indulge oneself in music that doesn’t very often get the limelight in our Western-centered world. As a composer I feel that it is my duty to always encourage creativity in music, and while it is certainly important to apply concepts and theories, my main goal as an educator would be to erase limits on what kind of music my students can create. My classroom will welcome any student who has a passion for music, but more importantly who can regularly demonstrate good character, responsibility, and maturity.

My education as a music educator has taught me that teaching music, like creating it, should be limited only by one's own imagination. By that adage, I do not mean to denigrate the importance of pedagogical theories. I have profited from the engagement with these. But, at the end of the day (or at least of the day where my education currently stands), I believe that teaching music requires that imaginations be unleashed. I still expect to draw on multiple methodologies, but I also want to find new and inventive ways to explain music to young students. Very few will become professional musicians, but I hope to instill in many of them the passion for music that has animated and enriched my life.

References

Campbell, P., & Scott-Kassner, C. (2013). Music in childhood: From preschool through the elementary grades. Nelson Education, 2013.

Hahn Tapper, A. J. (2013). A pedagogy of social justice education: Social identity theory, intersectionality, and empowerment. Conflict Resolution Quarterly, 30(4), 411-445.

Shamrock, M. (1986). Orff schulwerk: An integrated foundation. Music educators journal, 72(6), 51-55.

Sensoy, O., & DiAngelo, R. (2017). Is everyone really equal?: An introduction to key concepts in social justice education. Teachers College Press, 2017.

Tomasello, M. (2019). Becoming human: A theory of ontogeny. Belknap Press, 2019.