Abstract
I must admit fall is my favorite time of the year. The temperatures dive cooler, the leaves turn vibrant colors, everything has a hint of pumpkin spice, and there is always a good game on television. Fall is also the time when eager children enter our classrooms ready for new adventures. I can still remember the excitement of not being able to sleep the night before the first day of school, of meeting a new teacher, and of seeing my music teacher each year. The music classroom was the place where I could be me and shine in a way that, often, the traditional classroom did not encourage. Fall is a time of new beginnings.
As I begin my time as Chair for the Council for General Music Education, I enter this term with the same excitement I felt as a child entering a new school year. Beginnings are exciting and help propel us forward, but beginnings must also include an evaluation of our past. The past 2 years the Council has been extremely fortunate to have been guided by our chair, Dr. Bridget James. I want to personally thank Bridget for her guidance and for her tireless work steering our Council through new waters. It was Bridget’s vision and tenacity that led the Council to revaluate our role and have the vision to take on new challenges.
One new challenge the council has been working on is to reset our current Music In Our Schools Month® model from a product-based approach to an organic-process approach. The council has created multiple resources to help music teachers shift toward this new vision. The focus of these new resources is on the first grade, but they could be easily adapted for other grade levels. This year we will be working on resources for the second grade and bringing in more diverse voices. Be on the look out for these new resources to be published on the NAfME website in the coming weeks.
Another important topic our council, and our profession, has been grappling with are issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion. As a council we have started having challenging conversations about what these terms mean personally and globally. As we work to create new resources and be the voice for general music education in NAfME, we will examine our understandings and build new bridges of understanding. If we are to be the voice for all music educators and students then we must listen to all voices. I hope we will all work to understand before we are understood.
This past summer I attended NAfME’s National Assembly and Hill Day. It had been 20 years since I last traveled to D.C. to meet with my legislators about music education. I have sent letters, tweeted, and called my representatives and senators, but walking the hallowed halls of our nation’s Capitol offers a different perspective. It seems almost foolish that we still have to speak about the importance of music education, but we are being foolish only if we stop speaking up for music education. We must continue to find new and innovative ways to connect with stakeholders to advocate for music education for all.
I am particularly concerned with the image that general music education is only for elementary-age students. Currently, best estimates of secondary music education participation reports that only 20% of the nation’s secondary student population participates in music education through band, choir, or orchestra (Williams, 2012). We must advocate providing a comprehensive general music education for all students K–12. Just like our discussions centered on diversity, equity, and inclusion, this will be challenging and stretch our understanding of what general music looks like.
Many of the topics mentioned above will not be easily met but will serve as guiding principles as we complete our work. I have no magic answers to any of these wonderings, but I will rely on the representative voices on our Council to help steer our path forward. I hope you will reach out to your representatives on the Council for General Music Education with questions or suggestions of how we can best represent students and teachers. Contact information for individual Council members and an organizational chart is on the General Music Community on Amplify. Please do not hesitate to reach out to any of us.
My wish is that your new beginnings are exciting and provide simulating challenges.