Defining Moments: Using Music To Teach

It never fails. I go to the music educator’s conference and leave feeling like a horrible music teacher. Actually, I feel like a horrible music teacher the entire time I’m there.

The conference leaders are always so good. They have such great energy and ideas and they speak about music education like it is the highest calling of humanity. They speak of Orff, Kodaly, and Dalcroze and adhere to their chosen theories of music education like there is no other way. I understand what they’re saying. I think that music education is very important and I know that each of the major theories of music education have their strengths. And yet…

I am not a true music educator.

During one of my workshops at this year’s conference, the workshop leader said, “If a moment of integration pops up, then great. I point it out and keep going. But I never set out to intentionally teach math or reading or social studies. That’s not my job.”

Inwardly, I cringed a bit and I thought, "Yes it is."

A little while later, he said, “There’s a difference between teaching music and using music to teach, folks. And I teach music.”

“And I use music to teach,” I thought. "And I finally have language for what it is that makes me feel out of place here."

Don’t get me wrong. My students and I sing and dance together. We play instruments and learn to read music. We experience rhythm, melody, beat, tempo, dynamics, and form, and I follow the NC Standard Course of Study for Music.

But music itself is not my goal.
Using music to teach the whole child is my goal.
Helping a student connect his isolated and segregated learning is what drives me.

Music is math, science, social studies, reading, write, and linguistics.
Music is cultural reality that is with us throughout our lives.
Music bridges gaps in learning and provides opportunity to express what otherwise cannot be expressed.

So why not cover both music and math on purpose? Why not cover music and history and social studies by design? Why not emphasize music and reading? Maybe it’s old-fashioned, but my students absolutely love following along in the music textbook and finding places on the map. So why not use my time with my students to try to help their brains connect everything they are learning?

The thing is? That’s not what I hear when I’m at convention. And so I leave feeling like a terrible music educator. Which maybe I am. And yet…

I use music to teach holistic learning in an increasingly fragmented world.

So I guess when receive a note from a student that says, “Thank you for helping me learn music, Ms. Deaton,” I have to trust that, true music educator or not, I’m doing something right.

And I’m doing it in my own way.