There are many people in various fields that study how music is processed by the human brain and is influenced by age and life experiences.  It has been observed that not all people possess the same level of music abilities, but all have the same ability to respond music in its aesthetic nature.  The fact that people are able to tap to the beat when listening to music presents the argument that music is a natural trait and is wired into us as humans.  The chapter continues to discuss wavelengths and different components of sound and how that is perceived by humans.  Many educational theories are heavily psychology based with influence on the way our bodies react to sound.  This is because they intend to create the most effective way for subject matter to be taught.  Piaget, Bruner, Vygotsky, and Skinner are all known for their theories of education.  

Elementary education is the foundation for middle and high school music. When beginning a music education degree, many people have strong feelings towards teaching the younger grade level. Often there are those that are extremely eager and others that are praying they are never offered a job with elementary students. Young students often have an innate sense of musicality from their favorite TV shows or games they like to play. Teachers need to have a paraxial curriculum because these students learn best by doing. There are three major methods that are used today to teach this sort of music, Dalcroze, Kodlay, and Orff. The Dalcroze method is heavily based on movement, the Kodlay method is heavily based on folk music and solfege, and the Orff method mixes speech, dance, and movement. The Orff method often uses xylophones. Regardless of the level I end up teaching it is vital to know about the different methods because they can be applied to upper division music. If students fed into a middle school with a heavily Kodlay based program, I can revisit ideas they may have learned to effectively communicate new concepts to them.

The beginning of this chapter dealt heavily with race, which made me somewhat frustrated.  I feel that students should not be treated differently because of race.  It seems that we do such a huge job of trying to make people that are not white feel included and accepted that we are alienating them completely.  This should have no effect on a student’s ability or right to a music education.  All students, regardless of color, are capable of being excellent musicians and being able to work cohesively in a classroom.  It is a slightly different scenario for students with special needs.  Some of these students need accommodations to be successful in an ensemble but I believe it would be a great privilege to have any student with learning or physical disabilities in an ensemble.  It does not only benefit the student, but also the class because they learn how to include a student with disabilities with respect.  I do not remember a single year that I was not in a choir with a special education student, some of them even became my best friends through high school.  These things are important to have in a teaching philosophy and be addressed in the classroom.  They are some of the many life lessons that students will gain from being involved in music.  

Mr. Steven Kelly heavily discussed the idea of equality in American education.  America is a country were most are taught than anyone can be president or whatever career they decide as long as they have the drive.  Kelly combats this with his point that equality would require all citizens to have access to the same choices.  American schools were thought of as to alleviate these inequalities and provide necessary education for students to achieve their goals.  The No Child Left Behind Act which was implemented in 2002 by George W. Bush stated that all students need to be able to meet the minimum standard. This creates a tough situation for educators because they strive to help their students meet standards but not all students progress at the same level. There are two different types of models used in schools to create equality, the common school model and the sorting machine model.  The common school model assumes things such as socioeconomic background and disabilities do not affect a students starting place for education. All students are taught equally and are expected to have an equal opportunity to obtain a job after graduating.  The sorting machine model is becoming more common in America to help cater to the needs of separate groups of students.  This is based on test scores, disabilities, recommendations, etc.  These students are placed or tracked into a section that is believed to best fit them and then they are tracked through their time in school in that circular route.  All of these inequality factors are vital to keep in mind when educating a group so that the needs of the students can be met, and it is critical to be aware of what system your school district will use.   

The role of music education drastically changed in 1994 when the Educate America Act stated that music is a subject in which students should become confident with. This article states that it is mandatory for a clear vision of music that is close with the national standards to it can be efficiently taught to students. There has been a change in the old curriculum of music to better fit the education system today. The article outlines them in seven categories: skills and knowledge as objectives, diverse styles of music, creative skills, problem solving skills, interdisciplinary relationships, technology, and assessment. Although the focus has changed, the idea of a teaching cycle still remains constant in the education system. This article was also based on seven assumptions: universal access to music education, a comprehensive music curriculum, opportunity to learn, adequate support for music education, interrelatedness within the curriculum, provision for exceptional students, utilization of community resources, and new directions in teacher education. This all being said, the purpose of this article was to highlight important focus areas for teachers to keep in mind so they can be effective educators and be the best teacher possible for their students.

The majority of teachers currently do not have a written curriculum. This can greatly hurt their education program because a curriculum can give a teacher a guideline to base decisions on and help them plan. It should be closely related to National Standards to keep the teacher on track. Conway included a bulleted list of helpful things to include in a curriculum writing such as overall program beliefs, philosophy statement, skills or benchmarks to attain, required resources, sample teaching strategies and lesson plans, checklists, rating scales, rubrics, rating scales, audition material, and ensemble literature and ideas. Designing an entire curriculum can be a daunting task, especially for new educators. This article suggested on the two main ideas of what is being taught and learned when writing a curriculum. It also stressed that curriculums are often revised an added to so it is important to remember this document is not final when it is initially written.

Choral programs have both a strength and weakness in that they allow amateur musicians to join the group.  This is beneficial because it can draw in a large amount of students to the music program, but it also brings people without a music background into the program.  (But I do not feel that is a bad thing, unlike the book). I think the purpose of being a choir teacher is to teach students to sing and act as one unit, by bringing in untrained students teachers are able to mold these voices and actually teach!  A difficult aspect of the choral classroom is that many students do not take private voice lessons.  A director must consider the warm-up session as a way to teach a group voice lesson and incorporate techniques used in the warm up in the literature the group is singing.  Additionally, middle and high school choral teachers are faced with the challenges of working with changing voices.  In addition to teaching students how to sing, choir directors have to teach good musicianship skills such as sight reading and rhythm.  As if this was not enough, choir teachers must also be able to select appropriate music for their ensembles.  It is good to sometimes vary the ways in which each piece challenges a group, for example, one may have long lines while the other has a challenging rhythm.  All of these things were discussed in this reading and can directly apply to my future as a choral director.  

Hodges brings up excellent points in her article regarding why students should study music.  She delves into the purpose of education and the purpose of schools to add strength to her argument.  She has many reasons why music should be taught such as : aesthetic experiences, self knowledge, group identity, feeling, structure, and self identity.  Music is different for each person and it is vital to under stand what one may know, express, understand, and share through music.  Her thoughts that she wrote in her article will be extremely useful in writing my personal philosophy statement for music education.  It is currently a struggle to verbalize all of the reasons why I feel music is important, but it is helpful to read a professional’s insight to spark ideas. 

The author of this article went into detail of talking about what is difficult in the arts.  She used metaphor after metaphor and countless examples to try to explain her point.  Simply put, we as “artists” are trying to define something that is undefinable.  Each person has different reactions/outcomes associated with music so it is impossible to have a concrete reason why it should be taught.  If we lived in a world where everyone was constantly angry but music made them happy again, it would be simple to explain why it is vital to our education system.  Unfortunately, this is not the case.  We try to put what we know about our subjective human feelings into a piece of music and then explain why it should matter.  That being said, our philosophy for music education should be ever changing as we learn more about music and how it relates to people. 

It is critical for music educators to create a sound philosophy to benefit both them and the students.  Having a philosophy allows the teacher to establish self-worth in realizing the necessity of their profession. Music teachers must know why they believe their job is important because one day the lofty description of ” teaching students the power of music” will not be attainable and can cause teachers to loose focus.  Philosophy comes from the Greek words meaning love and wisdom and there are several branches of philosophy now in contemporary times.  As a current music education student this opening chapter is extremely useful as I am beginning to learn more about myself and what I believe as an educator.  Philosophy is huge influence in life and changes with the times so it is essential to be current on what is going on in the world and in music.