What messages are we sending our students?
Recently, I have had some discussions online regarding music education and was surprised the effect it has had. Music is my passion, and so is music education for all children and even adults. Music is something many can benefit from and carry with them for life. But unfortunately, It seems that many people have suffered psychologically.
We teachers (and I’m talking about myself here also) must be conscientious about the messages we send to our students. I’ve heard from many people lately that they can’t sing or don’t have a musical bone in their body. I know people who hated lessons because they were fed a steady diet of music, made to perform in public or told they weren’t musical. It’s so sad that those people had to endure This, and even more painful that they cannot enjoy music as a part of their lives.
The truth is, everyone is musical, and everyone can sing. Every time your heart beats, every time you speak, you are creating music. Everyone can sing if the music is at a range for the person. The reason you don’t think you can sing is that you have been told that you can’t, or are scared of so sounds you make because of others making fun of it etc.
This is just a quick blog to encourage all of us as teachers to help our students enjoy music as much as possible. Give students music they want to learn, such as pop songs or classical. I was not too fond of pop, but many don’t like classical. Never tell a student they aren’t music, but instead try different things to help that student. Every student has strengths. We just need to find out what. Having a good network of teachers to connect with when issues arise is a great thing.
I’m working on a more creative approach to teaching, where the needs of the student are taken to account. I’m also working on finding different fun methods to accomplish that goal.