Woodford, P. (2015). On the education of Bennett Reimer.

Philosophy of Music Education

Review 23(2), 142This article was about Bennett Reimers philosophy of music teaching and what impacted it.
His theory is that teachers should only teach the musical aspect of music, and should not be
teaching them about the political or social views. It is more about the true nature and the value of
the music. He got some ideas from Dewey, who thought that music was a tool used for
developing a heightened consciousness of an ordinary experience. It was a somewhat religious
experience, in the sense that music could be used to transcend and make more spiritual connects
with people. Dewey did not believe in only the rich being able to take lessons, he believed that
everyone deserved to have access to music lessons as a way to escape poverty, and empower
them. Another person that influenced Reimers philosophy of music teaching is Bruner. He
believed that music should be taught as long as they only talked about musical qualities, not
through political or social lenses (which fits along well with Reimers philosophy.) Unfortunately
this was during the Cold War, where the government was using musicians and artists to fight.
Not only is the Cold War an important aspect of Bruners philosophy, but it also impacted
Reimer because he was alive during this time period.
In this article it brought up the question would it be more practical for students to figure out
the political and/or social ideas in music by themselves, or with a teacher? I believe that
students should be able to figure out a lot of things for themselves. If something is seen under a
specific lens, everyone is going to have a different opinion on it, and in the context of music
everyone will place a different meaning on the piece. It is very similar to asking a group of
people what image they saw in their head as they listened to a specific song, everyone is going to
come up with a different idea. Being able to form opinions on music under a specific point of
view is something students should learn how to do by themselves, with little to no involvement

of the educator. (This is similar to how teachers are not allowed to teach us about political parties
without being very fair to each party and leaving their personal opinion out of it, as to not skew
our decisions.)