Issues

2. (28 points)  The paper by yours truly ("Houston, We've Got A Problem") discusses an important social/educational problem.  Music teachers can probably make their contributions as opportunities with students arise, rather than through formal curricular efforts such as a course or unit in a course.  They can also exercise their ideas as interested citizens.

Read the article, and then do these two things.  First, think of two actions that schools, and especially music teachers, might do to improve the situation.

Second, think of and describe two actions that local government or community groups can do to deal with the situation.  If you prefer tackling the matter at the state or national level, you may do so instead of confining your thoughts to your community.

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As a music teacher, you need to become responsible for your program.  While music educator organizations are great for providing resources for teachers, it is ultimately up to the individual music teacher to advocate for their school music program.  One thing a music teacher can do is to inform their Principal about the state of their program.  Dr. Charles R. Hoffer recommends that a music educator write a letter to the Principal addressing the state of their program once a year.  This letter will include information about what is being taught in the music program as well as what needs there are for the program and what it will take to fulfill those needs.  Even if there is no immediate action taken place after this letter is composed, it will show your interest in the program and help inform the Principal that the music program is a real class and not just a class that students attend when classroom teachers need a break.

In addition, the music teacher needs to keep the community informed about the educational offerings of the music class as well.  We walk a fine line between education and entertainment and it is very easy to edge towards the side of entertainment.  The entertainment factor brings applause and numbers to our concerts.  However it doesn't always bring support.  In order to garner support for the school music program, the parents must be informed about the goings-on off the music classroom.  They should see that their students know musical concepts.  They should see that their students are learning music.  In order to do this, we need to keep the education vs. entertainment balanced in the program.  We can choose entertaining pieces to perform for the parents, however, those pieces still need to have educational components as well.  Instead of performances, we should hold "informances" for the parents so that they are informed of what the students are learning in music.

In an effort to improve low academic performances in school, teachers, students, and parents all need to become involved.  One way to improve low academic performance by students would be to work with the parents to set aside an hour a day for the kids to do homework.  There are no distractors such as TV or video games.  Students work solely on homework and parents can sit down and help them.

Another way to improve low academic performance by students would be to partner with a local business to create a work-study program.  Students in this program would attend school for half the day and then work for the other half of the day.  This teaches things like responsibility in the work force, how to deal with other people, and more.  An experiment was done using this idea in Indiana and the students in this program ended up with higher scores than students who were not enrolled in this program. 

Community groups can also get involved with improving our school music programs.  If a band has a booster club, the booster club needs to spend only a small amount of time and money to send out letters to television news organizations, community organizations, and newspaper organizations to inform them of what the program is doing.   This can include spotlighting the groups or individual musicians, what the students might be learning in class, and the needs of the program.  This will greatly impact the program because it will help inform the community.  This will gather support for the program.

Lastly the local government and the school board can get involved as well to generate support for the music programs.  Unfortunately we don't always get the support we want and need from the local governments and the school boards because they generally give the funding to the "basic classroom programs."  However, if we went to the school board and the local government with information about what the students are learning, informances that demonstrate these skills, and a showing of community support, we could really generate a lot of support from the local government and the school board.  Once we have the local government and school board on board, they are more likely to help with any needs the program might have.  

All these ideas are there to help music educators.  We might not get a lot of support because we don't know how to ask for it.  With these ideas, we can start to get help with building the program, get support for the program, and ensure that it won't be the first program on the "chopping block" when there are budget cuts.