I distinctly remember my audition into the Department of Music. I performed “Hasse Suite” on my euphonium, none of the professors clapped, and then immediately after my performance, they started the interview process. They asked me questions such as, “Why do you want to study music at the University of Saskatchewan?” and “What are your future ambitions?”. After I told them I wanted to be a band teacher and gave them some background information about my high school music career, the panel asked, “Why do you want to be a band teacher?”. I share this anecdote because this audition was the very instance of me sharing my beginner philosophy of music education and my reasons for wanting to be a teacher to someone other than my high school band teacher and family.
During my interview, I shared how my band teacher had been such an important aspect as to why I wanted to pursue music. My band teacher, Aaron Sikora, had done everything he could have to set me up to do great things. I remember showing an interest in band in grade 8 and he noticed too. He gave me my first solo that year and it caused me to start being really confident in my sound. He sent me to honour band and at the end of the year, the division received a new instrument and I was the one who received a new euphonium to rent and play on. Since that year, I received many more opportunities to perform, travel, and experience different honour groups. I started to learn as many instruments as I could to get ahead because I knew that I needed to give students the opportunities that I received.
I remember telling the panel my musical story, and I remember saying “I want to be the key that opens the doors of opportunity for students”. I was inspired and driven to provide students the opportunities to pursue music if they chose, to raise their confidence, and to be outstanding citizens. That idea of being the key that opens the doors of opportunity for students fueled my passion and my desire for going where I felt I needed to go.
As I grew older and experienced a few years of being in the music department, my teaching philosophy changed. I still want to provide opportunities for students, but I experienced a switch of focus that is more about the student developing into a good person and using music to do that. From being in the College of Education, I am still a fiery advocate for music education (being in classes with 75 people and being one of two music students tends to do that to you, especially when other disciplines might not understand why music is important). In music, we are taught how to justify our programs because the disheartening reality is that many arts programs experience budget and funding cuts. I know how important the arts are so it is my job to help teach those who cannot see that.
Anyways, currently, my philosophy of music education is that I want students to be lifelong learners and to realize the beauty and strength that music can have in their lives. I want students to be lifelong supporters of the arts and to realize the positive effects that music can have on us, even outside of high school. I want them to be lifelong appreciators of music, even if they don’t play like they once did.
I also want to allow human beings (flawed, unique, hormonal, emotional, gifted, purposefully made human beings) to explore their own humanity, feed their souls, fuel their passions, and create beautiful art. I need students to have the tools to be outstanding humans outside of the classroom. Yes, I want them to continue music and to learn the benefits of having music in their lives, but ultimately, I need to teach students how to be interdependent, independent, disciplined, brave, honest, empathetic, passionate, and full of the integrity needed to take what they learn inside of the classroom to outside in the real world, where they are purposefully needed. Students need the skills to be able to help themselves in healthy ways when they are experiencing the perils of life and I believe that what they learn in a music classroom can help them do that. I am not just confined to teaching students how to correctly play a quarter note; I am teaching students how to be outstanding citizens to others and human beings to themselves.
ECUR 165 