After twenty years of teaching instrumental music at the high school level, I was eager to introduce some fresh elements in my classes. I had previously enjoyed courses in Music Theory and Music History through Coursera, and was impressed by their high quality and accessibility. Finding a listing for “The Place of Music Education in the 21st Century” as I began my summer break seemed potentially to be tailor-made in order for me to address my “mid-career challenge.” The course has proved to be everything I had hoped it would be.

I have been energized and inspired by the rich menu of lectures, Ted talks, and interviews. My eyes have been opened to innovative practices in music education from around the globe. The course has led me to discover Katie Wardrobe’s Midnight Music website and podcasts. Along the way I found the TeachRock and LittleKidsRock websites and will use them explore the cultural significance of the music we study. The reference to the late John Frederick Paynter as an innovative music educator caused me to research his career, and I eagerly await the arrival of a copy of his groundbreaking book, “Sound and Silence.” I have been motivated to finally begin learning how to use Apple’s popular Digital Audio Workstation GarageBand, and am confident that I will be able to use it as a tool to create engaging warmups and backing tracks for my guitar, piano and orchestra classes.

I know it will take time to sort out all these new ideas and influences, but I come away from this course with lots of shiny new tools in my toolbox that I am eager to play with. I am committed to keep searching, keep reading, keep learning and immersing myself in new technology that will open creative paths for myself and my students. At the same time, the course has given me a new appreciation of the importance of meeting my students where they are, in terms of their preferences, rather than forcing my own tastes on them.

Moving forward, what is needed is to maintain a sense of balance between the old and the new. Certainly there is much to be learned from the past, no matter what the genre. Orchestra students are still drawn to the works of Vivaldi in the same way that guitar students still love Led Zeppelin. There are many current artists whose work combines the best of both of these worlds, and I will continue to seek them out. I will try to maintain an openness to my students’ world and hope that it will lead them to be open to mine. What I think we both share is a love for and a passion for music. 

Some of my guiding principles moving forward will be:

• Project-based learning that puts student engagement at its center
• Expanded opportunities for students in all classes to improvise and create their own music
• Student-centered instruction that is culturally relevant
• Increased use of technology to enhance and extend instruction

The closing statement by our instructor, James Humberstone, is both an inspiration and a challenge. I paraphrase it here: “Because we have been privileged to know life with music in it…we’ll only manage to really connect with the children in our care, to inspire them to deeper creative ambition and a lifelong love for music by being openminded, by being critical thinkers about technology and its use, and by taking that pluralist approach to music education.”

I know how music has enriched my own life. I feel lucky to be able to earn a living in a field that involves music in my everyday life. Music in schools has such potential to reach the “whole student” at a time of rapid change and uncertainty in their world. I see the disconnect that many of them have with school, how so much of it doesn’t seem relevant to their lives. At the same time, as this course has repeatedly stressed, popular music is like oxygen for these students. They can’t live without it. As a music teacher in the 21st Century I have a powerful tool to reach these young people and put them in touch with their own creativity. This is my challenge.