Music Education Philosophy

By Jacob Wild
Why teach music? This question frequently comes up when discussing music education
in the public school and if music teachers aren’t prepared to answer this question it can hurt their
program severely. My answer to this comes through perseverance, lifelong love of music and the
development of each child more generally.
The relevancy of perseverance in music education cannot be overstated: If students give
up on music you have no music program. They are making choices about whether to continue in
music at a vulnerable time in their lives and without a certain resolution students won’t stick to
it. Dr. Sweet (2020) says “. . . the idea of perseverance should be woven into the fabric of the
classroom and referenced on a regular basis.and referenced on a regular basis . . .” (p.73). This
quote shows the importance of this in a music education and how it should be a central tenet in
classroom life.
A lot of students will probably not go on to have a career in music but will use the tools
of their music education in engaging with art in the future. The intrinsic and extrinsic benefits of
music combine to make contributions to spiritual, imaginative, and social life and are vehicles by
which a lot of culture is relayed. (Jordan) Music education should have the objective to develop a
lifelong love of music which can in turn help those people pass on their love of music and
continue drawing new students to music.
Along with developing a love for music it is important to consider the development of
each child more generally when teaching music. When students are allowed to see further into
the process of the musical of preparing a musical piece they are allowed to mature further as not
just musicians, but as thoughtful members of the community, musical or otherwise, as well. Dr.
James Jordan (2008) highlights that “When I finally realized I was teaching a child, not just
teaching music, my approach changed.” (p.7) He connects this to showing his students how to
have better critical thinking skills to link why they are teaching something in a certain way to
make clearer what they're teaching.

Works Cited
Jordan, J. (2008). The School Choral Program: Philosophy, Planning, Organizing, and
Teaching. GIA Publications.

Sweet, B. (2020). Thinking Outside the Voice Box: Adolescent Voice Change in Music
Education. Oxford University Press.