On December 13th, the Music Education Department at JMU hosted an event called "Celebration of Innovation in Music Learning and Teaching". This event, on the night I attended, including projects created by freshmen in the MUS 150 class, BandHub videos created by students in the MUED 206 class, poster presentations intertwining social issues and music education by students in the MUED 371 class, and finally ending with the MUED 670 debate. I will just say right off the bat that this was one of the coolest music education related event that I have been to since I have been a student at James Madison University, and seeing everything that night really opened my eyes and my mind to different perspectives and mindsets on various issues. The Projects and Posters The first thing I did when I got to event was go through the two rooms where the MUS 150 students were presenting their end-of-semester projects. The projects were extremely creative, and took 100% advantage of the modern-day technologies that we are allowed, from free 3-D printing, conductive paint, and Makey-Makey systems provided by the instructors. Projects ranged from a Dance Dance revolution sort of music creation experience, a device to allow students with lower lung capacity or physical disability to still be able to sing in the choir by having a prerecorded voice sing a pitch corresponding with a button on a tube, and a compact drum-kit created with coding, cardboard, and tin foil. The ideas they came up with were very original and creative, and I'm sure it was fun for them to see their creations come to fruition. Seeing all the posters and the students presenting them was very enjoyable. It definitely opened my eyes to issues I had not even considered, like preventing injury in beginning musicians, or having dyslexia involved in music education and music learning, or representation of music subcultures in the classroom. The students seemed very passionate about the topics that they picked, and they all seemed like they were very informed about their topics and did a lot of research. The DebateA link to a live stream of the debate: https://www.facebook.com/JMUMusicEd/videos/1620342618011341/ Debate Topic: Team A: Mandate that 100% of students to take a music class every year that they are in a public school -OR- Team B: Have public schools relinquish control of music classes, and have students who want to learn music do so in community bands or in private lessons The debate far exceeded my expectations for what was going to happen. My first thought after hearing the debate topic was "How could you even think about getting rid of music classes in school?", and it seemed like when I asked some of my other classmates, they had the same thought. We were studying to be music teachers, and now the idea of no music classes in public schools is being debated? We knew this debate didn't mean that one was going to be implemented over the other, but the thought of it even being debated terrified me. I didn't necessarily agree with having 100% participation, but I sure wasn't for getting rid of it in public schools.
Notes I took from Team A: (Denise Schultz and Jon Stapleton) This is the team I originally agreed with prior to the debate starting. Jon gave his opening statement, bringing up that community music can be isolated and that public schools can bring up intentional dialogue across social issues that community music would not be able to do. Team A believes that 100% of students should experience the eclectic feeling of being a part of a music ensemble in a public school setting, and that the students will develop respect and empathy, and not worry about mastery, but inquiry. Notes I took from Team B: (Dan Warren and Jenny Hoye) Dan brought up 3 main points in his opening statement: 1) Community music opportunities allow for the kind of individualized music learning that caters to each individual student; 2) Financial disparities, and; 3) structure of public schools isn't conducive to teaching 100% of the student body music. Team B says that music is too broad of a subject and is too diverse to teach to 100% of students efficiently. During the cross-examination, Denise asks Dan if community music groups are equally accessible to students regarding genre and socioeconomic status, but he brings up the point that public school doesn't offer that either. This is the point where I started paying more attention to Team B, and found myself agreeing with more and more of their points. Notes from Moderator and Q&A: The moderator reminded us during the course of the debate that both sides are fighting against the status quo. There was one question asked during the Q&A that really pushed me more towards Team B. This questions was asked towards Team A: "In English class, we're required to read books, and that takes a lot of fun out of reading the book. Do you think the same thing would happen if we did the same thing for music classes? What would you do about that?". My thoughts on the debate: Team B won me over during the course of the debate. The fact is that it would be easier to cut the music classes out of the public school, use the money from the budget to help community groups thrive, and not force students to participate in music classes, though I don't agree with 100% of what they said (and I'm sure they don't either). The logistics of having 100% of the student population taking music classes every year would be insane, and it's not the answer to lack of intentional dialogue. Let the students go out in the community and incite change, rather than sit in a crowded classroom talking about doing so.
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