Our society has witnessed a long, steady decline in public music education over the last generation or more. More and more elementary schools are completely cutting elementary arts education, and this inexorably leads to lost opportunities at the secondary level.
Meanwhile, in 2015, what we need is more choir teachers. Many more. Ten times more. Fifty times more.
We need math teachers who are choir teachers; biology choir teachers; history choir teachers. Mandarin Choir Teachers.
The visionary thinkers about a future of education beyond the factory model: Seth Godin, Ken Robinson, et al., describe classrooms and teachers that remind me of many of the choir classes and directors I know. It is my firm belief that the many great choir teachers working today are at the cutting edge of education’s future.
When someone writes about a revolutionary physics teacher, I think, “that’s what choir directors have done for years.” When my local school district adopted “Capturing Kids Hearts,” it sounded a lot like the approach to family and connection practiced in good school choirs around the world.
We need more of them. Many, many more.
The future of education is personal, is emotional, is transformational. And if you want to see what that future looks like, stop into a quality choir rehearsal for a day.
And for goodness sake, fight to maintain and enhance arts education where you live.
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