Department of Music

Adelphi University

0199-250:
Foundations of Music Education

Heather Waters, Ph.D.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Music and Coordinator of Music Education

Musician and Teacher: Chapter 4

Stephen Hogan
September 28, 2016

Breakpoint 4.1:
There is not one set policy, nationally, for education in music. Many places have
either local or state wide policies that mandate some sort of curriculum as far as music
and art is concerned. When I was in elementary and middle school I was required to take
a general music class, as is the case in all schools in New York. Where it is mandatory to
take half a year of music, through the eighth grade. It would be beneficial, in the long
run, to mandate a form of music education, be it general or in a specific area, for all
students. It not only would help relieve stress, as music in all forms is proven to do, but it
teaches students about multiple cultures that they would then understand better after
learning their music and popular culture.

Breakpoint 4.3:
All students would be assigned to research a different genre of music, or a
different cultures music, and in eight measures write a simple melody that encompasses
the genre as a whole. They would then present their projects and explain why and how it
encompasses that genre, that culture as well as telling a brief background on the culture
that they based their base around. This kind of assignment would go over well with a
student that is in either later years in middle school or high school. It would expose these
students to all different kinds of music and cultures.

Breakpoint 4.10:
Many schools divide schools in many different ways. Some of the most common
forms are to divide from grades 1-4 in one school, 5-8 in another school, and 9-12 in
another school. While other may divide it into only two school one going from 1-6 and
the other from 7-12. And some even have schools that divide from k-12, not dividing the
students in any way at all. Dividing schools has benefits and withdrawals, some benefits
being that the schools then are less crowded and more focused on the few grades that are
in there, while a withdrawal might be that the school would be more divided and not have
a tight knit community to help one another out in times of need.