8/25/10 - 3 Points of Interest on Chapter 2 of "Music In Childhood."

1. "Consistent with a belief in the child as an active player in the shaping of knowledge, the constructivist theory of learning explains knowledge as a result of the process by which the child creates meaning from his or her experiences" (pg. 22). I completely agree with the significance of the "Constructivist Theory" when it comes to children and music. Since I was a child, music was always something that I was constantly creating in my mind. It was something that I was quite conscience of at an early age, and it was completely a private act of learning. Humming tunes, whistling phrases, composing melodies in my young brain, picking out notes on the keyboard: these were all methods by which I was learning about music by constructing the music itself. I believe that the highest form of learning is when we take on the active role of creator. Isn't it wonderful and altogether fascinating that music allows most all children to do this quite easily?

2. "The Skinnerian technique of successive approximation, or the shaping of behavior by reinforcing each progressive step toward an ideal , is one of the most common used by teachers" (pg.26). While this may be one of the most common methods of shaping behavior currently used by teachers, I think there is always an inherent danger present when a teacher becomes increasingly fixated on an ideal to the point where the expected result is more important than the student(s) in question. In high school I was enrolled in a musical course that was supposed to enrich my passion for marching band. However, I had a band director that was too fixated with his own vision of what he thought was "aesthetically pleasing," that he lost the respect, admiration, and finally the control of his students. So bad was the trauma that to this day I have no desire to be associated with marching bands. While it is admirable to be idealistic, we cannot forget about the students.

3. "The discovery method is a type of learning that involves problem solving, requiring the learner to manipulate materials and to cope with incongruities from which information is derived" (pg. 33). Not only do I believe this to be a fascinating and enriching form of learning, I believe it is essential for students to be "undercover detectives" in their pursuit of knowledge. I remember my undergraduate years at Brigham Young University when we were learning the rudiments of chromatic harmony. Simple harmonic rules were given, simple chord progressions were memorized, and simple instructions of musical form were studied. Life seemed grand. Music theory and analysis was going to be easy! But then we were given a sonata by an actual composer, like Beethoven, Schubert, or Chopin. In an instant, ideas we thought were grounded on simple principles turned out to be illogical at best and incomprehensible at worst. Simple rules we thought to be unchangeable were manipulated to the point of no recognition. And musical form that made so much sense before now seemed to be non-existent. In short, we learned by first-hand experience that music theory and analysis wasn't going to be that easy! We were given the basic tools to succeed, but we had yet to use them in the real world. Nevertheless, as we took the plunge into the musical abyss, we learned something of what makes Beethoven, Schubert, and Chopin so special. We learned to think for ourselves and to always expect the unexpected. We learned to manipulate materials! We learned to discover!