Making the World a Better Place: Why Music Education?

I want to be clear about something before going any further: this is not a post defending my profession, as you will often see around social media these days. I believe that music is such a strong integral part of our lives that it doesn't need to be justified; it's simply a way of life. This is simply a post about why I LOVE what I do, and how - even though I am headed to graduate school for another 2 years before I settle into a band program to call my own - I already know that there's nowhere else in the world that I'd rather be and nothing else I'd rather do than dedicate my life to the fulfillment of those in the younger generation who - as composer Aaron Copland once pointed out - are also the future of our nation.

From a 5th grader at my Elementary School Student Teaching

I was one of the lucky ones to realize fairly early in my life that my main purpose and greatest desire in this world is to do the best I can to make a difference in the lives of others. Wherever we are and whatever we do, every human being should be able to leave the world better than he or she found it by chasing after their dreams while helping others along the way. It may be true - perhaps a simple act of kindness for one person can’t change the entire world - but I’m a firm believer that a simple act of kindness can change the entire world for one person. That gesture could be the very gesture that serves as inspiration or motivation to catalyze a turning point in that person’s life, that he or she may be put in a position further down the road to do the same for others.

Now - look at the job of a high school band director, for example: the band director has the unique privilege and luxury of being a part of the life of hundreds of adolescents every year during perhaps the most critical point in those adolescents' lives: the often-times awkward, rough, and jagged journey from childhood to adulthood where their identities are changing every minute, and it can be difficult to find comfort in who they are, or to even understand WHAT they are. In music, they can find an uplifting and supporting community that sadly doesn't exist in many places in this world anymore. Thus, a high school band director has as many as 4 years to not only change the world for one person, but to change the world for thousands of people in that director's career at a time where those people probably need it most. Now how cool is that?

From the students at my High School Student Teaching Placement

Music educators have a selfless job of endless spiritual fulfillment. Conductor Benjamin Zander of the Boston Philharmonic said it best when he underlined the fact that the conductor of a band or orchestra doesn't make a sound. Rather, a conductor's power depends solely on the ability to make other people powerful. That's a music educator's purpose: to awaken possibility in other people. Tell me: why would anyone NOT want to be a part of that?

http://www.msgrantmusic.org