Waiving Through A Window: A New Vision For The Music Curriculum Frank Abrahams, Ed. D. Associate Dean and Professor of Music Education Westminster Choir College Princeton, New Jersey
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n the Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen1, teenager Evan suffers from a social anxiety disorder. His psychiatrist suggests that he write letters to himself that will help focus and calm him. Intending that Evan’s messages are positive, the doctor recommends a writing prompt that begins “Dear Evan Hansen, Today is going to be an amazing day, and here’s why.” However, for many music teachers, and the students in their classes, many days are not so fulfilling. Imagine Evan Hansen as the music teacher writing a letter. It might go like this: Dear Evan Hansen: Today is not a particularly good day. I haven’t slept all night. My lesson plan is flawed because I could not align the content that I felt compelled to teach, to the prescribed and approved curriculum. I am trying to meet my students where they are, honor their individuality, and illustrate global themes of social justice, diversity, and ethical practice. I want to engage their musical imaginations, intellects, and creativity in ways that are transformational and meaningful to them. But, my curriculum calendar says that today I must teach the evils of the augmented fourth. I feel that if I do not do that, the music education police will find me and then remove me from my students, strip away my license, and banish me to hall and bus duty forever. Sound ridiculous? Well, not really. The hegemonic practices that frame public schooling and particularly music education curricula in schools delimit access, inclusivity, diversity, and equity. They are often prescriptive and do not address essential questions like “Why teach this?” and “What does my teaching of
the content in the curriculum have to do with the students in my care?” Instead, these practices challenge the very essence of an education that should foster democratic ideals, a feeling of well-being, happiness, and result in music students who find experiences with music in school to be fulfilling. Instead, they reproduce a historic western pedagogic tradition that many students find boring and a waste of time. Many students believe that their teachers do not connect to their realities and that the prescribed music curriculum does not honor or value their heritages, identities, tastes, or values. Any discussion of access, inclusivity, diversity, or equity in music education (or any school subject) begins with the curriculum. In this essay, I propose a view of curriculum that fosters inclusion through collaboration (i.e., teachers with students) and promotes meaningfulness in ways that contribute to feelings of well-being. The curriculum is not a collection of lesson plans stored in a large loose-leaf binder and summarized in a small daily plan book. Nor is it the enactment of a Eurocentric music methodology. Instead, a curriculum should be organic and result from the collaboration of teachers and their students working together within a context of social capital. I define curriculum as the interaction of teachers and students in authentic and meaningful experiences, which both teachers and their students acknowledge as important. The purpose of the curriculum is to enrich and change the knowings, understandings, and perceptions that students and teachers have as individuals and as members of a sub‐set in society. The curriculum is content that results in an enlightened vision of what is important and what adds value to the world within
TEMPO 26
JANUARY 2020
