TN Musician Vol. 71 No. 4

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PRELUDE - A MESSAGE FROM THE EDITOR Michael Chester || Stewarts Creek High School S ummer, as we all know, seems to be the time for reflection for many teachers. The familiar grind has come to a temporary halt and with that void comes some uninterrupted time to contemplate. Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about the state of education and in general the constant push for higher and higher achievement test scores, the demand for more rigorous education standards, more emphasis placed on STEM, and the continuous invasion on the very sacred thing we all call instructional time. I use the term invasion to be intentionally provocative. There seems to be an increase in the workload of the non-instructional aspects required of teachers today. This inevitably creates two problems – a loss of instructional time and a loss of the much-needed emotional energy and “head-space” to be an effective educational leader. All of this comes with a very high cost. Students seem to be more stressed out than ever, heavily medicated, and lack necessary coping skills because of the various parenting behaviors in today’s culture of hypersensitivity. Yet we demand more from students, now more than ever. Skills that students in fourth grade were expected to master in past decades have today been replaced with skill sets and achievements that were expected from freshmen and sophomores in high school. We simply can’t end there. Now the expectation is for students in late elementary school to start thinking about college. High school students are expected to participate in college dual-enrollment 6 | TENNESSEE MUSICIAN | 2019 | Volume 71, No. 4
classes to get a head start for college. While this level of expectation has some merits, it also begs the question as to whether or not the increase in academic rigor is healthy for students. The educational-industrial complex, with its special interest lobbyists, have for years championed an increase in higher and higher academic standards for students and what they should know upon graduation. Yet it seems unclear as to whether or not any determination for the developmental, social, and emotional maturity and growth of students was ever factored. Just because the standards have changed to include skills once reserved for high school or middle school students to be taught to elementary school students doesn’t mean they are ready for it. This is where the importance of being a music educator is ever so critical, today more than ever. Our classes and those in the other arts disciplines give students a much-needed respite. Moreover, our classes give students the tools to express themselves in an appropriate matter and to deal with adversity through perseverance. It would be hard to imagine if our profession was caught-up in the current trends of education. If the emphasis in K-12 music education was simply all about the end product, perhaps the landscape would be drastically different. To think that middle school students who are just being introduced to performance ensemble classes would be expected to master musical skills once reserved for high school students would have dire consequences. There would only be a select few who could achieve those skills, and the rest would fall by the wayside. As music educators, we seem to be lucky in that we are masters of our own fate. We have been fortunate that despite all of the changes to our curriculum and standards for music education, that our standards are still grade-level appropriate for students. Even with all of the changes in technology and even the constant evolution of arts education standards for music, we have always managed to take into consideration appropriate standards for music education based on the grade and developmental levels of the students. There was once a time when students learned more than just about the subject matter that was being presented to them. Schools were still charged with making sure that students also had an education in character, conduct, and civility. While teachers of today are certainly as skilled, and in some ways perhaps more prepared to take on the task of education, than those of their predecessors, they just are not afforded the opportunities to instill the fundamental values as they once could because so much of the instructional time has to be devoted to “the test.” For better or for worse, that job now falls We have always managed to take into consideration appropriate standards for music education based on the grade and developmental levels of the students. onto the shoulders of music educators. Our classrooms may be the last bastions of hope for the many students that we are privileged to work with. Today’s students face an uncertain future in a drastically changing and polarizing landscape. Despite all of this, I believe that students who participate in music classes will ultimately have an advantage in the world, due in no small part to some of the most valuable skill sets that were instilled by a music educator. Michael Chester | Managing Editor Tennessee Music Education Association | www.tnmea.org | 7
Page 1: THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE TEN
Page 4: TMEA BOARD AND COUNCIL NATIONAL EXE
Page 7: Tennessee Music Education Associati
Page 11 and 12: In thinking about what is truly bes
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Page 19 and 20: PORTFOLIO DEVELOPMENT 1 2 3 PHASE 1
Page 24 and 25: INCLUDING LITERACY IN YOUR REHEARSA
Page 26 and 27: people to experiment with and dabbl
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Page 30 and 31: USING DORICO IN THE CLASSROOM: A Gu
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Page 34 and 35: 15 SSAA All-State Choir conducted b
Page 36 and 37: TENNESSEE MUSICIAN ADVERTISER INDEX
Page 38 and 39: TMEA BACK THEN In this issue, then
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TN Musician Vol. 71 No. 4

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