The Art of Teaching Music

Afterword

Afterword Thinking about the various aspects of music teaching about which I have written in this book, I pause to reflect on the themes that seem to recur. Excavating beneath what lies on the surface enables us to see things that might otherwise disappear from view. These leavings may be what Paulo Freire means when he talks of “generative themes,” or the ideas that drive thought and action.1 And so I gather up the fragments that nothing be lost. Throughout, we see the importance of imagination in every aspect of the music teacher’s work. Imagination is not only an intellectual activity but is felt as well as thought. Such a view sees music teaching as a holistic enterprise that cannot safely be subdivided neatly into its constituent elements , but where mind, body, and soul are inextricably bound together in the person and actions of the teacher in the midst of a lived life. Nor can teaching be easily separated from other aspects of existence; its roots lie in aspects of life that exist, strictly speaking, outside of the instructional moment as much as within it. With this in view, preparing teachers is a matter fundamentally of engaging imagination in ways that transcend the ordinary and foster the sorts of “out of the box” thinking, feeling, doing, and being that bring fresh perspectives and imbue the teacher with zest, life, and liveliness. Such approaches challenge what Alfred North Whitehead terms “inert knowledge” or “mental dryrot,” that is, knowledge that is dead, without life, or debilitating and damaging, and insist that music teaching needs to be about bringing life and hope to young and old alike.2 And imagining constitutes the means whereby this can occur for teachers, students, and all those involved in music education. It is striking how often we come upon the idea that teaching and learning is a matter of finding out what we already knew, at least in some sense. Yes, there may be some things that come with the force of a fresh revelation 280 • The Art of Teaching Music or that we may have known only dimly and come to see clearly. Yet, there is something in this knowledge that strikes a chord with us in which we sense that we stand in a special and sacred place and time and that these things ring true for us. And so, in the sense we have of coming home to be at peace and at one with ourselves, there is the joy and reconciliation of better knowing ourselves, grasping who we really are, and living in the integrity of being truly who we are and the unity of being at peace with ourselves. In so many aspects of music teaching, there is also the imperative of becoming our own teachers. Rather than looking to others from whom to learn, we need to learn from ourselves. This means, practically, that we build on the ideas and practices that others have bequeathed to us as a rich heritage, learn to think critically about our work, aspire to remedy our weaknesses, broaden our horizons, and take the practical steps of seeking help where necessary in order to strengthen those things that need improvement while building on those things that come most easily to us. In so doing, it is important to exemplify in our own lives and work the very qualities of learning that we seek to cultivate in our students. I have noticed that this work is never finished, and no matter how far along the road we may be, there are always new things to learn and weaknesses to overcome. Still, I suppose that if we could look at our lives over the longer term, as might a supernatural being, we might be able to see how far we have come and how much we have gained. And so we live in faith and hope that this can be case. These pages are shot through with the recognition of our fallibility, the imperfect character of our knowledge, and the possibility that we could be wrong. We do not know everything that there is to know and we cannot possibly be right all of the time. Our students, being fallible as we are, already grasp this and do not expect us to be omniscient, perfect, and infallible . What they seek, rather, is the assurance of our integrity, faithfulness, expertise, devotion, and love expressed to them as learners and aspiring musicians, and our carefulness regarding that which...