Music Education and the “Big Picture”.

Music Education and the “Big Picture”.

            Charles Hoffer once stated, “Music teachers are never completely alone in their work, even though they may be the only teacher of music in a particular school.”  Introduction to Music Education, Charles Hoffer, Wadsworth Pub. Co., 1993, p.54.  This is certainly true of the music educator in a Christian school.  I have often reminded music education students in my classes that the Christian music teacher must become a part of the “Big Picture” of a Christin school.  Not only should we have allied arts but also allied education at large in the Christian school curriculum.

            The music educator should look for ways to connect music content to the other areas of academics.  Francis Schaeffer believed that, “We tend to study all our disciplines in unrelated parallel lines.”  Escape From Reason, InterVarsity Press, Francis Schaeffer, 1968, p. 12.  Music teachers have a tendency to isolate themselves from the educational process going on all the way round them.  Probably the wisest choice that new music educators can make is to endear themselves to the other staff and faculty members of the Christian school.  The new music teacher will soon find out that there is comfort and strength in the comradery of community.