November 16, 2009

First of all, I am a little late posting this blog, but I did take notes on what I wanted to write in my journal so that I could type it at a later time, which is what I am doing now!
As I was reading back through the Daniel Pink book, I was struck with the chapter that dealt with design. It was interesting to read that there are as many cars in the US as there are people. This thought was just astounding. I started to think about this fact and as I did I wondered, where are all of these cars? Everyone who lives in the US surely doesn't own a car because then there would be no need for mass transit, so what has happened to all of these cars? Then another thought struck me. It used to be in music education that you participated in a band or orchestra class only if your parents could rent you an instrument from the music store. I thought how that has really changed in the past 10-15 years. With grants for music coming from multiple foundations like VHI it is really possible for kids whose familirs can't afford it to become a part of the music classes. As an iteninerant band teacher, I think it is great that the kids that I teach have the option and possibility to become involved in something like music.
In reflecting on the book, I think that now that we have the instruments available and the music available I have to do a better job of pairing the two. I have been building up the schools inventory for years now, making sure everything is in working order and what not, but I have yet to do any real research on good, basic music for the kids to play outside of their band methods book. I have always had to make do with a practice space, storage areas, and the like but I think it is time to invest some of my teaching time into getting some good basic music for the kids. I have always supplemented with pieces, but I think the kids would really like to see a whole piece that is an entity unto itself.