Two weeks ago, we were given an assignment for MHST 537 (Teaching Music History) class: Find a reading outside the syllabus that is connected to prejudice in the classroom, and introduce that reading to the class.

The reading I chose—Strangers From A Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans (Ronald Takaki)—is one that was part of the syllabus for a course (”Asian Americans and Education”) I took while at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. That course, the reason I took it, and what I got out of it are posts for perhaps another time. I remembered this Takaki reading because of one particular section titled “The Myth of the ‘Model Minority’” that resonated with post-grad school experiences I’d had. Takaki writes:

Today Asian Americans are celebrated as America’s “model minority.” In 1986, NBC Nightly News and the McNeil/Lehrer Report aired special news segments on Asian Americans and their success, and a year later, CBS’s 60 Minutes presented a glowing report on their stunning achievements in the academy. “Why are Asian Americans doing so exceptionally well in school?” Mike Wallace asked, and quickly added, “They must be doing something right. Let’s bottle it.

[A] Pattern of Asian absence from the higher levels of administration is characterized as “a glass ceiling”—a barrier through which top management positions can only be seen, but not reached, by Asian Americans. . . . Asian Americans complain that they are often stereotyped as passive and told they lack the aggressiveness required in administration. . . . Asian American ’success’ has emerged as the new stereotype for this ethnic minority. While this image has led many teachers and employers to view Asians as intelligent and hardworking and has opened some opportunities, it has also been harmful. (Takaki, 474-477). 

I grew up in a society predominantly Asian and Polynesian, so I was largely insulated from the “model minority” views that Takaki relays. However, while studying for an additional degree beyond my Harvard one, I did encounter some of the reverse racism that Takaki might suggest would come about as a result: That because Asian Americans are perceived as success stories, it becomes acceptable by others to taunt, berate, and bring up Asian ethnicity as a means of “leveling the playing field” for those of other racial or ethnic backgrounds.

Here are a few short anecdotes that I feel relay my experiences:

• At one point, when I was taking a historical survey course (and was doing rather well in it, because of a lot of effort I’d put into studying the material), the instructor insinuated that my success was ethnically based rather than on my skill set. 
• Another teacher commonly made analogies that somehow connected musical scores with Chinese menus and Oriental massage. 
• I also had new acquaintances remark, “You’re the first Asian friend I’ve had—the others are so nerdy” and “Why are you damn Asians so good at everything?”

Though I wanted to take those experiences and remarks in good faith, I found it increasingly difficult to tolerate and stomach them. While the easiest way to interpret some of these experiences may be as harassment (racial and sexual), I see them as being related to the “Model Minority” syndrome. At no time during these occurrences did I observe members of other minorities or ethnic/racial groups receive similar treatment. 

Significantly, Asian-American “success” has been accompanied by the rise of a new wave of anti-Asian sentiment. On college campuses, racial slurs have surfaced in conversations on the quad: ‘Look out forthe Asian Invasion.’ ‘M.I.T. means made in Taiwan.’ ‘U.C.L.A. stands for University of Caucasians Living Among Asians’. ‘Stop the Chinese before they flunk you out.’ (Takaki, 479).

Implications for Classroom Teaching

Clearly, one lesson that I can draw from reflecting on my own experiences is that teachers must strive to be pro-active and conscientious individuals who value objectivity equal to their own interpretation and analysis. Another is that we must always consider what misunderstandings could result from the ambiguities of language and metaphor. I would also argue that organizing coursework and work products in a way that students’ learning processes are most evident can help to counteract any perceived obstacles for students that will come from a variety of cultural, ethnic, racial backgrounds.

A few weeks ago, I completed the second major assignment for MHST 537 (Teaching Music History): Substitute teach (or “guest lecture”) for another professor at NEC; videotape your teaching and analyze it. I had the good fortune to substitute for Larry Scripp; he had to travel out of town for the latter half of his MIE 501 (Intro to MIE), so I stepped in. 

The agenda I set forth for my teaching was based on an assignment Larry wanted me to give to the class: to get his students familiarized with the CMIE NewsBlog, as readers and potential writers. I worked backwards from his assignment to plan what basic learning outcomes I hoped my students would achieve—an understanding for what makes NewsBlog writers’ postings different from the “rants” that are commonly associated with blogging; a rationale for organizing the kinds of ideas and documentation that get shared on the NewsBlog; and a sense of direction—where, beyond the NewsBlog or MIE program, does this kind of documentation and writing have use and purpose? 

Where’s the Video Documentation?

Although I am not able to post my video of teaching here, due to length and filesize, any readers of the NewsBlog who are interested should read the transcription file (posted as a PDF here). In fact, anyone who reads the transcription file will notice that parts of it are highlighted and color-coded; this is a technique for analysis that we encourage MIE students to undertake. 

Transcribing, Coding, and Analysis

The process I have engaged myself in—of videotaping my teaching, watching it, transcribing it, coding it for objectivity, and finally analyzing and reflecting on it is one that I have observed as being useful for emerging and experienced teachers alike. It is a method that we showcased and published in the Journal for Music-In-Education (Scripp, Keppel, Wong, eds.), and that we encourage throughout the MIE department. Its value lies in the fact that words do not lie, and it is often easier to quickly see the ‘big picture’ when scanning transcripts than from sitting and watching a videotape. The benefits of watching the videotape, and doing one’s own transcription from that tape, are obvious: Body language, tone of voice, eye contact, movement, and other physicalities of teaching are easily recognizable. From watching my own tape, I was surprised to learn that my teaching voice was not as loud or enunciable as I thought it had been. I suppose that is something to continue to work on. I didn’t do an ‘exact word’ transcript here, but what I learned from the tape is that there were multiple times that I had to re-phrase questions, transitions, and other verbiage. I already knew from past experiences that off-the-cuff presentation is not my strong suit; the introductory Ten-Minute Presentation we did at the beginning of Teaching Music History is testament to that (I scripted that presentation and practically read it). Because of the limited amount of time I had to prepare this teaching session, scripting nor rehearsing were barely possible, but I did have to time to make a short Powerpoint presentation that I used as an outline of sorts.   

Connection to MHST 537 course

Although the class session I taught is not a Music History course, I believe that many of the same principles that we have been studying in Anne Hallmark’s MHST 537 Teaching Music History course still apply. The past several weeks have seen discussions in class based on readings that articulate how college classrooms are run; the pitfalls and mistakes of ‘wet behind the ears’ teachers; ways to engage students in discussion; and organizational tips for lecturers, among other things. These readings are balanced with seminar-style class sessions moderated by Hallmark, which in and of themselves serve as models for successful teaching in a graduate setting.  

As is evident in my coded transcription, I tried to incorporate some of the techniques that Hallmark and others are suggesting as worthwhile ways to engage students in discussion and classroom learning. Granted, there was less discussion than I would have liked, and the majority of communication was responsorial, but I think a good effort was made.  

The teaching session was also an opportunity for me to go into a situation not as well rehearsed or prepared as I usually would be. There is, as Warren Senders or Larry might say, a certain amount of improvisation that that is a part of any teaching experience, and that a seasoned teacher would need to be comfortable with; things hardly ever go ‘as planned.’  

Finally, I did make it to the end-point Larry projected for me: A MIE NewsBlog blogging assignment that students would need to complete, and connect, to the knowledge they’ve so far acquired on documentation, for inclusion in their process portfolios.

Download PDF:

• Outside Teaching Transcription, Coding, and Analysis by Randy Wong.

Many of us can remember having to take the SAT. Since 1934 when James Conant, the president of Harvard at the time began administering the test to scholarship applicants, taking the test has become increasingly standard procedure for a person moving from high school to college. But what does the Scholastic Aptitude Test really measure?

We discussed this question in class and came up with the following: LANGUAGE AND NUMBERS.

Effective? Comprehensive? Fair? We didn’t think so either. All the test tells me is that if I score between a certain range I can balance my checkbook correctly and read a newspaper article really quickly. Lyle Davidson shared that it’s really nothing more than a test to see who will pass their first year of college. I sure wish it had been presented as such instead of a test to see “who’s smartest.” I would’ve spent a lot less time worrying.

Unfortunately, because the SAT is still the standard measuring tool we are led to believe that the educators who have the last word must believe that the wisdom of priests and rabbis, the intuition of psychologists and the sheer genius of Mozart are not examples of intelligence.

In the 1980s a man by the name of Howard Gardner came forward with some new ideas on what “intelligence” really is. He presented the concept of “Multiple Intelligences,” saying that different areas of the brain support different types of expression, cultural differences and necessary awareness. For example, different cultures require individual and acute behavioral skills to survive in a specific location and environment.

We brainstormed what these “multiple intelligences” might be.

Here is the list we came up with:

• Language and Numbers (not only to be fair, but because they are important, too.)
• Spatial intelligence (2D and 3D awareness)
• Musical
• Kinesthetic
• Interpersonal/Intrapersonal
• Naturalistic

We decided that the list could be titled “Spatial Intelligences”.

As can be expected when you have a group of future educators talking about education there were many unsatisfied voices. Their statements could be passed off as hopeless complaints, but I think that would be a huge mistake. In the simplest of terms, it’s important that more of the focus in education be placed on spatial intelligences. NEC has already made the change to not requiring applicants to submit an SAT score. In my opinion, that was a smart move.

I’ll leave you with this:

Because we are individuals whose intelligences are clearly made up of more than just languages and numbers, should we not be approached as such by our educators?

Learning through Oral History and Morphogenetic Family Fields

In one of our first classes, Warren taught us the first verse of a traditional Indian song. He began the class with a drone and had us repeat vocal warm-ups in order to acquaint ourselves with the intervals in the scale. These fragments were then, piece by piece, combined to form a small melody. At this point, he broke away from the melody to have us repeat 5 or 6 spoken syllables. He then sang the completed piece with the full text and had us sing along when we heard the syllables that we had just learned. Now we had a somewhat ‘fleshy’ skeleton of the piece that we were able to fill out with the missing syllables. After about 10 or 15 minutes the class had successfully learned the verse.)

In our session this week, three of us recollected the song to Krishna that we had learned a few weeks ago while the other five members tried to learn it. This time, though, it only took about 4 or 5 minutes for the class to be able to recite it (as opposed to the 10 or 15 minutes the time before).

This reminded me of Rupert Sheldrake’s studies with morphogenetic family fields. Stated in a question to anthropologist Terence McKenna, a morphogenetic field is “a non-material organizing collective memory field that affects all biological systems. The field can be envisioned as a hyper-spatial information reservoir that brims and spills over into a much larger region of influence when critical mass is reached - a point referred to as morphic resonance.” Basically, one can understand it as a collective memory bank where a species, through adaptation and evolution, stores knowledge that is passed on through future generations of that species. Sheldrake elaborates that

each individual both draws upon and contributes to the collective memory of the species. This means that new patterns of behaviour can spread more rapidly than would otherwise be possible. For example, if rats of a particular breed learn a new trick in Harvard, then rats of that same breed should be able to learn the same trick faster all over the world, say in Edinburgh and Melbourne. There is already evidence from laboratory experiments that this actually happens.

In this case, knowledge is not limited to growth by future generations, but in fact is immediate.

This seems to be evident in our classroom. It took half the time for the class to learn the song when there were members present who had already learned it than it did when none of us knew it. In relation to this, Sheldrake determines that “animals inherit the successful habits of their species as instincts. We inherit bodily, emotional, mental and cultural habits, including the habits of our languages.” This could also go to explaining the pattern of oral history and tradition that makes our species unique. Warren mentioned in class that oral tradition was learning based upon the human love of imitation. I agree with this, but I also believe that, on a similar scale, oral tradition exists because of our innate capability of memory. Sheldrake in fact proposes that memory is inherent in nature. In this way I see oral learning and history as divided into these two factors; imitation and remembrance.

I watched a series of video clips this week on YouTube of Warren and his teacher, S. G. Devasthali, in a lesson (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4qibmXtTN0). The way in which he learned the ragas was similar to the way in which he taught pieces to our class. There was a call and response throughout the lesson, where his teacher would sing a fragment of the melody which Warren would repeat. The fragments were eventually compiled and through this repetition, he remembered them. This is the basis of oral tradition; imitation and memory. Repetition may also be listed as a component of oral tradition, perhaps as a subset of imitation.

It is interesting that, while he worked with our class, the song was essentially shattered in numerous fragments (phrases, pitches, syllables, physical expressions of the mouth, etc.) which we pieced together in a variety of different ways. I could almost envision a matrix of possible combinations, which after a number of these combinations had been tested, an image of the piece as a whole became more clear. It seems to me that this method is effective in that a deeper understanding of the material is achieved, where one not only learns the song front to back, but now knows its inner workings and could perhaps sing it back to front, or even from middle outwards. This also relates to a matrix, lets say in 12 tone music, where all possible combinations are visible at once (all of the inversions, retrogrades, and retrograde inversions for each transposition of the prime series).

Later in the class, we began to learn the second part of the Krishna lullaby. I was reminded of a piece by Milton Babbitt for soprano and piano (or tape) where, in addition to his systems of 12 tone and duration rows, he devised a system where each pitch was assigned a syllable. In this way, the text of the piece emerged from the music or from the system, rather than the music emerging from a set text. For me, this was similar in that learning this Indian song (where my knowledge of the language is next to none), each pitch or melodic fragment was assigned a syllable or, in a sense, a syllabic motif. It is interesting that in this case, in both pieces, there is a supreme unity to the sound. One piece (the one from class) the music emerged from the text, and the other (the Babbitt piece) the text emerged from the music. Either way, both utilizing a language unintelligible to my ears, both pieces felt solid and complete.

-Chris

NewsBlog Editor’s Note: We are pleased to introduce to you Chris Watford, a new CMIE Guided Intern working as Documentation Specialist for Warren Senders’s Cross-Cultural Approaches to Music-In-Education course this Fall. For more blog entries regarding this semester’s run of the course, and previous years’ runs, please click here. 

Hello NewsBlog readers! I am doing a guided internship this semester as a Documentation Specialist for Warren Sender’s course Cross-Cultural Approaches to MIE. My goals are to examine the roles of both teacher and student within a classroom setting and to collect evidence of the way in which both parties learn from each other. I am also interested in observing and documenting various strategies for effective teaching, and inversely, for effective learning.

What’s This Course About?

The course examines, through immediate experience, how people throughout the world intrinsically learn from one another. It also opens the doors to understanding how cultural structures in education shape the way in which we learn and, eventually, how we will teach. We also focus on understanding how to take what a student already knows and use that as a building block for further learning.

In the course of each two hour class, various activities are performed that demonstrate a number of different aspects embedded within the learning process. The class learns traditional Indian songs, builds instruments, practices the teaching of activities to the class, and participates in group discussions that center on our collective observations from previous activities and experiences. After each class, the students are expected to compose a written reflection on their experience and how it relates to what they are doing outside, whether it be performing, practicing, teaching, or just aspects of general living. The idea is that, by the end of the semester, they will have compiled an in-depth ’syllabus’ that outlines specifically what they have achieved and observed throughout the term (that also makes it possible to read simultaneous reflections from the same class in order to compare our collective learning).

My Guided Internship Plan

Having already participated in and completed this course, I have an understanding of the end product. My plan is to observe the process again from a new perspective and to gather visual, audio, and textual information throughout the term. This will be compiled into a final presentation that focuses on the dynamic between learner and teacher, and stems from the hypothesis that they are both equal and similar parts of the same system, rather than opposing ends. In addition, I will also be exploring aspects of oral tradition along with different ‘cultural’ and scientific approaches to learning (genetic, morphogenetic family fields, etc.).

Warren and I will be collaborating extensively throughout the term in order to produce a multi-media project to encompass the collective learning of the class and to highlight various aspect of effecting teaching/learning. I will keep you up to date with new information and media as each class approaches, so please check back frequently for new posts! I am looking forward to an exciting year!

NewsBlog Editor’s Note: We are pleased to introduce to you Jenny Giardina, a new CMIE Guided Intern working as Documentation Specialist for Lyle Davidson’s Music, Brain Development, and Learning course this Fall. For more blog entries regarding this semester’s run of the course, and previous years’ runs, please click here. 

My generation has been part of the blog explosion, as I like to say.  After being a part of the common social networking sites (names I’m sure I don’t need to list) I am very pleased to now be a part of New England Conservatory’s MIE NewsBlog.  I recently entered into an MIE Guided Internship as a Documentation Specialist and will be providing updates and peeks into the learning going on in Lyle Davidson’s Music, Brain Development, and Learning course.

So far we’ve done a great deal of studying the brain from a biologists viewpoint: the anatomy, neuronal activity, and the physicality of a learning brain.  With the aid of our current text, A User’s Guide to the Brain: Perception, Attention, and the Four Theaters of the Brain by John J. Ratey, M.D, we are being encouraged to delve into our personal questions and curiosities regarding the learning process as relates to the brain, as well as the effects of music on the brain.

Along with this focus we’ve been given the question “what was my best learning experience and why?”  The more we work with this question and our personal answers the more I’m sure that all teachers need to think about personal experiences and be aware of all the possible approaches that could help a person learn in a more complete way.  We’ve all heard the old adage, “Some people learn best by reading, others by listening, and still others by seeing someone do it.”  We’re finding through our experiences in class, our reading and classmate comments that these standard approaches are only addressing the tip of the iceberg. 

My BEST Learning Experience

I spent a semester teaching in a private school last year.  I was the first music teacher they had and the teachers, parents, and most importantly students loved me.  I taught music once a week to all the students one grade at a time.  Not only was this the most rewarding experience of my life, but the most difficult. Throughout the semester I learned more than I ever thought I would from the preschoolers alone.  The challenge was working with such a wide range of age groups—Pre-K through 6th grade.  The most exciting moment was when I had the Kindergartners clapping rhythms from the board.  I first used circles to indicate a clap, and vertical lines for silence.  After a few times through I replaced the symbols with quarter notes and rests.  They couldn’t wait for it to be their turn to come up and put the notes and rests in the order of their choice.  Through this process I found that not only can the youngest students follow what I teach the oldest, but they are more involved, active, excited, and quick to learn the skill.  Looking back now and thinking about what I learned in music at that age I’m almost sure that the music curriculums are nowhere close to the level they can and should be.  These 5 year olds need more.  Much more.

As the Documentation Specialist for my current MIE class I’ve outlined some questions to focus on:

Goals for the Class

• To spark an interest in the class to uncover and experience as much as they possibly can to be part of the final product.
•  To carefully document accurately and thoroughly so that no one is cheated of the priceless opinions and comments of the teacher, students, and authors.
•  To collect and interpret these findings by the end of each week in a way that is easily transferable both in format and language to the CMIE NewsBlog.
•  To encourage my classmates to read and blog on the NewsBlog, both to experience what is being said about their class and to comment themselves.

Personal Goals for the Future

I’ve recently begun research into Music Therapy and find that every page I read convinces me more that I should pursue this field as a career.  My personal goal through this internship is to uncover more information regarding the techniques of this field.  I also hope to answer a few more specific questions:

• What are the proven methods for using music to positively influence the brain with learning disabilities, dementia, or other abnormalities?
• In this relatively new field, what are some of the methods still in the research stage not yet commonly practiced?
• What are the physical attributes of a brain that functions differently than my own?  
• How do these characteristics change during/after musical experiences (taking note of specifics)?
• With the help of my classmates’ individual curiosities, what discoveries will prove to be the most useful to my own inquiries and how can I apply them immediately?

I will be posting weekly with updates of class activities, discoveries and even pictures and hope you will check back to follow our progress. 

Your comments are encouraged, especially those about your favorite learning experience as they can only help us in our learning process.

Venezuela’s Music in Education in Schools
Since 1930 Venezuela, has been working on building a classical music culture establishing and promoting orchestras, concerts, music associations, and finally the music and social movement called “El Sistema”. The main purpose of which is to provide education and values to children and youth through the practice and learning of music. El Sistema has demonstrated dramatically that providing children with the opportunity to practice music helps them achieve them a better quality of life while featuring social well-being in the community.

In spite of these efforts, “El Sistema” remains an after school program. However, in Venezuela there are some schools that for many years have music as a vital part of the curriculum, making it available for children and youth in their everyday schooling routine. In Venezuela at present no public schools offer any formal music instruction.

This research project will examine the music instruction at the “Colegio Emil Friedman” and the “Colegio de Artes Intergradas El Avila”. Both institutions provide their students with a wide range of arts activities as a main part of the curriculum, including both Venezuelan and classical music. This study attempts to show how and to what degree the music at the school assists the teaching/learning process, and provides a social benefit to the school’s students and their communities outside the school.

 A Brief History of the Colegio de Arte Integradas El Avila
Founded in 1996 in Caracas by a group of parents and teachers who were looking  to provide the best education possible for their children, the Integrated Arts School El Avila allows children to grow, and learn in an environmental rich in arts, science and technology.

The school is the heart of the Integrated Arts Center ( Centro de Artes Integradas), a cultural center whose main function is to allow a generation of Venezuelans generations to have  permanent and direct contact with a variety of arts expressions, including Theater, Painting, and Music as well as with the sciences. The school’s founders believe that the combination of arts, science and technology encourage an  increase in children’s  creativity and solid emotional skills which are crucial in the continual humane progress in the society.

The school has a bilingual system in order to facilitate these young connection to the world, but also is committed to educating the students in the history and customs of Venezuela. In other words, the school is to form an educate committed Venezuelan citizens in all the fields who can make  a significant contribution to the betterment of the Venezuelan society.

In addition, this school believes the parents participation is vital for the education: therefore, the  school seeks to involve them in as many activities as possible. Finally, seeks to improve the teaching/learning quality. by offering professional development courses to its teachers.

Colegio El Ávila Music Program Curriculum
 El Colegio El Avila music lessons are an important part of the curriculum. The school has designed a program that guides teachers and students from kindergarten to high school. The music teaching emphasizes Venezuelan folklore, but also features the standard and international repertory.

El Colegio El Avila music lessons are an important part of the curriculum. The school has designed a program that guides teachers and students from kindergarten to high school. The music teaching emphasizes Venezuelan folklore, but also features the standard and international repertory. Kindergarten Level:  On this level the children start rhythm exercises and body expressions, sing traditional Venezuelan folk songs, and dances such as merengue, valses, joropos, aguinaldos. Additionally, children receive lessons that introduce them to the instruments and spend time listening to popular and classical music. The school offers them as well the opportunity to sing in a Choir in which they perform pieces for one and two voices from the Venezuelan folk music repertory.

Basic I: On this level children from 8 to 10 years of age continue the voice and body activities from the  former level, but now begin participating in the music school festivals based on Venezuelan music and take instrumental lessons during the afternoon. Additionally, they play musical games and begin using the flute and the percussion instruments employed in the Orff method while learning music concepts such as tempo, rhythm, dynamics, melody, harmony, texture and forms.

Basic II: Children from ages 10 to 12 continue the same activities from Basic I and they receive instrument lessons on guitar, mandolin, and cuatro which is the national string instrument.

Basic III: On this level, youth from  ages 14 to 16 years old are instructed in how to listen to music in a more critical way expressing themselves orally as well as writing reflections on what they hear. From this point on, it is a student’s decision to continue on learning an instrument, but if they are the school provides free after school music clubs.

High School Music Program: In this program youth between ages 16 and 18 are encouraged to attend concerts, listen to music and write and discuss their ideas about music. They are also taught basic music history and are introduced to complex musical forms.

This kind of structure has proved being very successful because this school has achieved the integration of the arts and especially music, in the regular school program. El Avila make available all sorts of music activities such as music lessons, chorus, and recitals inside the school, and involves all the school community including the parents.

Questions for the Avila School Students

• Explain why you think that music has helped you to learn better other subjects such as mathematics, science, language.

The children and youth notice that music has helped them very strongly in concentration for learning the other school subjects as well as their reading skills has been improved. For example a student uses to sing what he has to memorize for the biology test. On the other hand, they think that their verbal capacity has grew up and has given them for example in the history class more elements with which they can do relations. For instance, one of the students mentioned “ when I started having piano lessons my Math scores got better” and a second said that she used music to learn singing her history lessons.

• To what extent have you witnessed the development of extra-musical skills (i.e., organizational, spatial, logical, etc.) since you began your musical studies?

The Avila students recognize that their auditions and physical body movements, for example as coordination has been improved with the music’s practice. Not only physical skills, but at the same time the students identify that music has assisted them with more personality emotional tools for example: self esteem, work team, respect and solidarity. Additionally, the notice that their memory and patience has been expanded as a consequence of the music studies. The students enjoy for example being able to sing on tune, recognize the different music style and periods and read music.

• Why do you think that music has to be part of the general school program?

The Avila’s students believe that music is a part from the life, and they think that their human development has been more complete, integral and round with music, because they experience its benefits not only in the brain building, but has a people that are part of  a community. They expressed though as for example: ‘Music moves the world’, ‘Music is universal’, Music make me better academically and as human being’. They think that the education has to be integral and music is an important component of it

• To what extent can music be an entry point into further social development?

These students are aware about the importance of having a community with more culture and related to the arts in general. They believe that music can relax people and improve their social skills as comprehension, listening the different opinions, unity. Moreover, they admit that music can cross all kind of social and racial boundaries. As an example, they said that the more culture offers has a community, the more the social good is. In general, they think that a cultivated and educated country generate social good for everyone.

• What kinds of music do you like and why?

The Avila students has a wide range of musical  tastes which goes from Popular Venezuelan and international, for example: Pop, rock, Jazz, World music to classical music.

• How many times during the week do you have music lesson in the classroom?

They have from 1 to 3 times music lesson during the week in which they participate in music activities as instrument lessons, choir rehearsals and recitals.

• How often do you attend concerts during the year?

They uses to attend concerts frequently not only inside the school, but in other concerts venues in Caracas.

Questions for the Avila School’s Parents

• To what extent does the practice of music contribute towards the development social and/or emotional intelligences in your child?

The Avila’s parents have noticed some signs on their children and youth since they began learning music at school. For example, they said that music has reinforced their personality build up making them more secure peoples with a firm self esteem. The fact of practicing an instrument daily has  giving them discipline and responsibility and the parents realizes that being an orchestra or choir member has expanded their interpersonal abilities. On the other hand, the parents admit that their children creativity has been nurtured.

• What is it about music, as opposed to other art forms or school subjects that provides special entry points and acts as a stimulus for the social development of your child?

The Avila’s parents have the opinion that music has permitted their children to have contact with different cultures, and they perceive qualities on their children as for example: sensitivity, spirituality, better communications expertise, concentration proficiency, respect, social and emotional maturity as well as the ear and rhythm develop.

• To what extent have you witnessed the development of extra-musical skills (i.e., organizational, spatial, logical, etc.) since your child began his/her musical studies?

Avila’ parents are aware that their children have nurtured some features as for example: logic, body coordination, attention, audition skills, verbal ability and memory.

• Why do you think that music has to be part of the general school program?

The Avila’s parents support strongly this idea because they think that music complete the education making it integral as wholeness and reinforce other kind of values that the human being needs to be a citizen not only in the country but in the world.

• Explain why do you think that music is important for the well-being and health of the entire society?

They think that music can make people happier, because it can improve the quality in the human relations in order that music support values as for example: solidarity, cooperation, team work. The parents believe that music reduce bad habits, violence and in general can reduce the probability that some can commit cranial acts. On the other hand, they feel that music can contribute as a family link for example when the family member play together an instrument or attend together a concert.

• Do you attend concerts? Can you describe what kind of music and how often in the year?

Yes, mostly of them attend regularly concerts which include all sort of music styles. Some of them play some instrument or sing in a choir.

• Can you mention what kind of music do you hear music in your home?

The Avila’s parents listen to all kind of music styles from popular to classical

Questions for the Avila School Teachers

• How do you notice that the practice of music has contributed to fostering positive social values in the community?

The Avila teachers believe that music promotes community integration and action because music’s essential performing and listening skills provide diverse community members with common goals that unify them rather than separating them.  Further, the teachers feel that music can help create better citizens because it makes people more sensitive to their communities or surroundings.  For example, one of the teachers said “Music educators observe the different behavioral differences and world perceptions between children and youth who learn music and those who do not.   Spending hours on the focused study of music—instead of on passive activities like watching television or potentially harmful activities like drinking or smoking—could improve not only the individual’s quality of life but the community’s as well.”

• What kinds of skills have your students developed as the result of studying music at the school?

The teachers have perceived that their students have improved their attitudes in many areas, such as responsibility, respect, identity, sensitivity, and socialization.   They also feel that music practice has enhanced their students’ expertise in language, memory, and concentration.

• Why do you think that learning and playing instruments improve your students’ capacity for learning, concentration, and social skills?

The teachers’ opinion is that instrumental or vocal practice has assisted their students develop empathy and express emotions through music performance.  Further, they feel that musical activities have increased and/or refined the students’ intrapersonal and interpersonal aptitudes.

• Which kind of the methods (e.g., Kodaly, Orff, Suzuki, Dalcroze, etc.) do you use in the classroom and why?

The Avila School teachers use all these methods, but they do not have one favorite, because they believe that each method can offer valuable help during the music lesson.  At the beginning they give priority to the methods which emphasize rhythm, and then in the next levels they employ methods that utilize melodies, harmonies, and instrumental practice.

• How often do you attend concerts during the year?

The Avila teachers attend concerts frequently inside and outside the school.

• What kind of music do you listen to at home?

The Avila teachers listen to all kind of music at home, from popular to classical.