Submitted by Meredith Harley Inserra, New Bern, North Carolina
Idea posted March 8, 2006
Below is a philosophy we came up with for our county several years ago. I was on the committee that developed it. It contains NO reference to the effect music has on reading or math. Infact, it is all about the inherent value of music. Our aim was to point out music's intrinsic value. I am a firm believer that the moment we, as music educators, fall back on the idea that music can enhance other learning, we immediately compromise the value of music education. Here's what we wrote:
The philosophy of the music educators in the New Bern Craven County Schools system is based on the concept that music has intrinsic value and every child has a human need to experience music as an expressive art form which contains the qualities of feeling that correspond to the patterns of human life. Music education provides the opportunity for cognition by sensing the qualities of feeling inherent in melody, harmony, rhythm, tone color, texture, and form.
We contend that all mankind has a profound need for music as a means of knowing, experiencing, and understanding the self and the world. To achieve this, our students must have the opportunity to externalize their feelings into a form on which they can reflect and clarify their own human experiences. In as much as reading and writing develop our students' thinking skills, creating and experiencing music develop our students' ability to feel and sense. The process of externalizing the internal process of feeling through music is a basic need and life-long process for all humanity. We, as music educators, are committed to fulfill this need for the students of the New Bern Craven County Schools.