Chapter 18--Questions 2, 5

Chapter 18—The Music Education Profession

2. Why should school music teachers who are members of organizations such as the American Choral Directors Association and the American String Teachers Association also be members of MENC?

While area-specific organizations are beneficial to music educators, MENC provides even more opportunities for professional growth in addition to similar opportunities provided by more specific organizations. MENC is also more heavily involved in music advocacy at state and national levels and actually creates the national music standards that all music educators should strive to achieve. MENC speaks “for music education as a whole” (Hoffer, 256). Encouraging membership of MENC keeps the organization more drawn together, not “fragmented” as it would be if teachers only joined the organizations for their specific areas. (Hoffer, 256)

5. Cite five challenges that music teachers in the secondary schools face now and in the near future. Describe why each of the five you selected is important.

1. “Increase the percentage of high school students involved in music courses.” Far too many schools put required courses up against music classes, so students do not have the opportunity to participate in band or choir. Since there are fewer students able to take music courses in these schools, the ensemble sizes decrease and some people see it is an unproductive program, thus deciding to make the period shorter or hold it less often or even cut the program, when it is, in fact, doing more good than they realize. We, as music educators, need to fight for our students, working with administrators and other teachers to come up with schedules that allow for time in music classroom. Without their help, it can’t be done, but without us saying or doing something, there isn’t much chance that it will be done.
2. “Bring about a better balance in the high school music curriculum./Make the performing ensembles more educational.” Since many smaller schools are already fighting for time for music instruction, this may be a difficult task, but still very important. This is why I chose to combine these two challenges. If we are not able to create more types of ensembles and provide general music instruction in the secondary schools, we should at least provide it within the context of performing ensembles as much as we can. After all, how will our students know what they are singing or playing if we don’t help them understand it?
3. “Make a deliberate and consistent effort to inform others about the school music program.” Like I said above, if music teachers don’t do it, it probably won’t be done. We need to be advocates for our program, not just by doing our job, but by stepping up and saying what needs to be said in order to keep our program alive and thriving. We all know the importance of music in everyone’s life, but we have to make others see it. Simply putting on concerts to show that something is there is not enough. We need to go above and beyond what is required of us and prove that music is necessary and needs more support from the school and the community.
4. “Make effective use of technology in instructing students in music.” There have been and continue to be numerous innovations in music technology in recent years. Just trying to keep up with it all is a challenge; however, we should still try to provide something to our students when it comes to technology. We don’t need to get the latest version of Finale every year, but we should, at least, have it in some form so the students can use it. Even a lot of these new programs and technologies are expensive, we should also be aware of the unique software and tools that are free to us, so we can provide our students with even more opportunities.
5. “Continually make the education of students in music the objective of all music instruction in secondary schools.” In the grand scheme of things, putting together and doing a performance may be the easy part of a music teacher’s job, but it is not necessarily the most important. Having the experience of performing is good for students and teachers alike, but there needs to be more than just singing or playing a piece of music. Students need to know what goes into making a piece great. What compositional elements provide the tension and release that causes your heart to beat faster? How is a particular sonority created? Why is this music so appealing? There are so many questions that need answers, and simply rehearsing and performing a piece will not answer them.

(Hoffer, 261-262)