In addition to bridging gaps between cultures, “music stimulates
supports, reinforces, and expands traditional conceptions of
synaptic growth and is a fun activity that lowers the affective filter of
education and improve the very scores that traditionalists seek to
learners as they incorporate the language patterns and phonemes of
improve (Jensen, 2001).
English into their schemata” (Rennie-Varner, 2002). This principle
concept of secondary language acquisition stands as a significant
support rationale more music in our schools. Research shows that
vocal and instrumental music should no longer be viewed and used
only for recreation or entertainment purposes. Music is also a
practical tool for second language acquisition (Medina, 2000).
Michael Fielding, in the article Community, philosophy and education
policy: against effectiveness ideology and the immiseration of
contemporary schooling, concludes that by failing to recognize the
necessity of creating community together, we as educators fail to
understand “the first priority in education” (Fielding, 2000). He
explains that his understanding of the first priority of education is to
What Administrators Need to Know
learn how to live in personal relation with other people. Fielding
In the shadow of the No Child Left Behind legislation, it is
as he focuses the school effectiveness discourse to the concept that
increasingly imperative that administrators, teachers, and parents
to be educated is to be able to enter into personal relationships with
unite to ensure that certain elements of the public schools are not
others. Similarly, students who study music enter into personal
placed on the backburner. I truly believe that our high stakes testing
relationships with others each time they endeavor to make music in
culture has created a “teach to the test” philosophy of education that
an ensemble. Just as Fielding’s paper calls for an alternative
fosters minimum standards, simplistic thought, and an isolationist
educational policy perspective to education that centers on
culture (Kohn, 2000). I encourage administrators, teachers, and
community, I believe that our current focus on high stakes testing is a
parents to become stronger supporters of the arts and the many
seriously flawed intellectual endeavor that requires drastic action by
other elements that come together to make a good school. These
an informed and hopefully outraged group of stakeholders.
elements are often referred to as “extra-curricular” and are in danger
of being lost if teachers are forced into only teaching to the minimum
standards of reading, writing, and math skills that will be tested by a
state mandated exam. It is ironic that many elements of a good
school, like music and art, which are perpetually on the metaphorical
chopping block, offer some of the strongest tools for reaching
students. They offer an alternative approach to education that
bases his article on the work of Scottish philosopher John Macmurray
Community Experiences and Narratives
In addition to being a viable and worthy academic discipline in its
own right, music provides essential connections to early language
acquisition as it attempts to connect with culture