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Visual & Performing Arts

Philosophy of Music Education

“Music education in the public schools exists for the purpose of awakening and refining the aesthetic sensitivities of all children. The music program should develop music skills, understandings, and attitudes that will enable students to enjoy a richer life through listening to or participating in music experiences.” Since the uniqueness of the aesthetic experience is inherent in all humans, the pursuit of learning in music is an essential and vital opportunity that should be available to all students, not only those with special talents.

The Christina School District recognizes the importance of the aesthetic experience in the total educational development of the child. The music educators of the Christina School District are committed to providing a rich learning environment in which each student may achieve his or her full potential.

We Believe...

that all students have musical aptitude and should have opportunities to develop their individual abilities

that all students can develop individual and collaborative expression through musicianship

that all students should have opportunities to create and perform music, as well as respond to music and make connections with creative concepts

that all students can appreciate historical and global cultures through music

that the processes of learning music require problem-solving and critical thought

that all styles of music have validity within the music curriculum

Shannon Smith, 12th grade, Newark High School (2018-2019 School Year)

10 Lessons the Arts Teach
1. The arts teach children to make good judgements about qualitative relationships.
  Unlike much of the curriculum in which correct answers and rules prevail, in the arts, it is judgement rather than rules that prevails.
2. The arts teach children that problems can have more than one solution.
  And that questiona can have more than one answer.
3. The arts celebrate multiple perspectives.
  One of their large lessons is that there are many ways to see and interpret the world.
4. The arts teach children that in complex forms of problem solving, purposes are fixes, but change with circumstances and opportunity.
  Learning in the arts requires the ability and a willingness to surrender the unanticipated possibilities of the work as it unfolds.
5. The arts make vivid the fact that neither words in the literal form nor numbers exhause what we know.
  The units of our language do not defind the limits of our cognition.
6. The arts teach students that small differences can have large effects.
  The arts traffic in subtleties.
7. The arts teach students to think through and within a material.
  All art forms employ some means through which images become real.
8. The arts help children learn to say what cannot be said.
  When children are invited to disclose what a work of arts helps them feel, they must reach into their poetic capacities to find the words that will do the job.
9. The arts enable us to have experience we can have from one other source.
  And through such experiences to discover the range and variety of what we are capable of feeling.
10. The arts' position in the school curriculum symbolizes to the young that what adults believe is important.
By Elliot Eisner from "The Arts and the Creation of Mind," Yale University Press from NAEA National Art Education Association

Guiding Principles of Music Education

During the course of their 1-12 musical education, all students should:

Demonstrate understanding and independent use of the materials, techniques, vocabulary, literature/repertoire and diverse cultural and historical contexts/connections through the three artistic process:

Creating: imagining, experimenting, planning, making, evaluating, refining, presenting, and exhibiting music works that express their own creative concepts, ideas, and feelings (composing, arranging, improvising.)

Performing: selecting, analyzing, interpreting, rehearsing, evaluating, refining, and presenting diverse music works through performance (singing or playing an instrument, establishing a physical steady tempo, performing rhythms.)

Responding: selecting, describing, analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating music works and performance based on critical perception (as listener/audience or consumer.)

Develop musical skills sufficient to:

continue lifelong involvement not only as a responder, but also as a creator and performer

pursue further study, if they choose, in preparation for a career

Demonstrate understanding of the relationship of music to the other arts and other disciplines

Seek music experiences and participate in the musical life of the school and community

QUESTIONS? - PLEASE CONTACT:

Karen Yarnall, District Chairperson - Visual Arts

Rosaria Macera, District Chairperson - Performing Arts

Teaching & Learning

Visual & Performing Arts

We Believe...

10 Lessons the Arts Teach

Guiding Principles of Music Education