In the short video of The Landfill Harmonic Orchestra, several girls make profound statements. One girl talks about the butterflies in her stomach as she listens to the violin, and another says that "My life without music would be worthless." These are important words for us as music teachers to remember. Music plays an important part in many people's (perhaps everyone's, to a point) lives. We are surrounded by music. We hear it on TV, in movies, in stores, on the radio, everywhere. Sometimes we don't even notice it. On a deeper level, though, music means much more to many people. I have had many students over the years talk to me about how Chorus class was the only reason they came to school. This is something that the public and administrators needs to hear more often. If they come to school for music class, our hope (and charge as music teachers) is that they will put forth effort in their other classes, and gain the tools they need for success. Students find comfort in music, they connect to it (whether popular music or otherwise) on a level that is more than intellectual, it is emotional. Music provides an escape, a way to express emotion, and a way to be creative. These connections to music go beyond the school years. People still connect to music in many ways throughout their lives. Unfortunately, life sometimes gets in the way and people (politicians, administrators, parents, etc.) forget how important music is (or was) to them.
Some of the best ways for music teachers to inform the community about the importance of music is through demonstration. Performing in the community gives the students a chance to show off their skills, and the community to see the value in music education. Every holiday season, countless school music groups perform for countless community organizations (women's clubs, VFW, civic associations, nursing homes, etc). During those performances, it is important that the audience hears from the students themselves about how music has impacted their lives. The more the students talk and the less the director talks, the better. The nice thing about those types of community performances is that you never know who is in the audience. Lots of times, very powerful people are sitting there, and it is much harder to cut funding to a program when you see for yourself the positive impact music has on the lives of the students and on the community.
A wonderful way for music teachers and students to reach out into the community to educate non-musicians is through an activity called an "Instrument Petting Zoo." In these activities, young students from the elementary schools visit the high school band/orchestra room and the older students give demonstrations on their instruments. After the demonstrations, the young kids are able to pick up, examine, and even play the instruments. This is sometimes the first experience with a real musical instrument for these young children. One of the most powerful effect of these events is that the parents of the young children see how much they love playing and exploring the instruments. The parents are more likely to advocate for a strong music program in their own schools simply because they see how much their children enjoy music! I would also think that inviting parents to experiment with the instruments would be fun, too! There are always non-musical parents that probably played an instrument in school and haven't thought about it since. Maybe an event like this is just the spark needed to turn them into an advocate for music education!
The news media is a valuable tool in the music educator's "bag of tricks" to help educate non-musicians on the importance of music. Inviting newspaper and TV news coverage of anything and everything the students are doing is a great way to expose more people to the importance of music. As with the community performances, the more the students talk about the impact of music in their lives, the better. The music teachers can talk ad nauseam about how important music is, showing research, quoting experts, etc. The real impact comes from those personal student stories. Student stories put a real face on the issue of music education. We have always been lucky in my county because our local newspaper takes time each summer to highlight each high school's band camp. They are also very cooperative in sending a photographer and reporter to any event to which they are invited. Visibility is key. I don't think that the public is inherently against music education in the schools. The more they see that the music programs are doing wonderful things, the more willing they will be to support them. I have seen this first hand!
As is evident in this post, I am a firm believer in getting non-musicians (parents, school board, etc) to remember their own love and connection to music. The hope is that by thinking about how music has impacted their own lives, they will be more willing to support the inclusion of music in the school. We can quote study after study when we advocate for music education, but if we don't work to have the community feel that connection to music they've had in the past, we will not get very far.
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