Context

When I think about the explosion of high-stakes standardized testing, the loss I feel the deepest is context.

If I’m teaching students to be prepared for a test (and to be clear, I consider prepping for festival is a high-stakes test, too – even if it’s not standardized), one of the first casualties is time spent on context. When I need you to perform on the test, I don’t necessarily have time to tell you how this poem relates to that historical movement relates to developments in science relates to this philosophical idea. I can’t spend time in geometry talking about Euclid and Pythagoras and how music relates to geometry and how these ideas were discovered thousands of years ago.

And that is to the sever detriment of my students’ future. Because as a rule, context is more important than specific knowledge. Twenty-five years out, I might not be able to use l’Hopital’s rule, but I can recognize how the creation of calculus relates to other sciences, art, and politics. I know the context, thanks at least in part to the efforts of my teachers.

Even as I prepare for festival next month, then, I’m working hard to always remember that my ensemble’s mastery of specific notes and rhythms is less important than their understanding of context with regards to musical styles, interpretation, and a dozen other factors that won’t be assessed at festival.