In Sue Campbell’s
recent Metro Parent article Say Yes To
Music Lessons, the lack of mutually supportive conversation
about the many approaches to music education saddened me. While I think it is
fantastic to describe the options available, parents want facts, not opinion
based in judgment and collegial partisanship. Because of this, Campbell’s
article reads as biased, and I am pressed to understand how it helps parents make an informed choice?
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| photo by Hada Salinas-Pereyra |
Discipline means
giving life to learning, a kind of learning that opens the door to creativity.
Creativity blossoms when a container has been lovingly built over time, from
which inspired artistry can eventually be expressed. Because playing the violin
or any stringed instrument is an embodied, sensorial, cognitive experience, it
requires a whole approach to create meaningful learning,
making early childhood an auspicious and objectively proven time for creating meaningful knowledge of the musical language and the embodied expression of it.
In the Suzuki ECE classes, children learn in a
loving, interactive, age appropriate way how to discipline or bring their body and mind
to life in a way that will help them creatively express their thoughts and feelings through the musical language. Suzuki Early Childhood students experience the sights and sounds of different instruments to support both parent and child as they mutually choose an instrument that they will start after age 3. And because we are human, learning to play a stringed instrument at any age is
a long-term process that is an ever maturing journey through the
creative process where the full range of human emotions (including fun) are experienced as part
of the whole approach to music education.
The comment Sue Campbell made under the auspices of "many music educators" agreeing to starting a child on an instrument at 4 or 5 years of age; and the views cited above by Heath and Bradley, are opinion. None is fact.
There are many children who are ready much younger depending on their early childhood music education experiences. There is objective proof that babies can experience and understand complex rhythms, however, children who grow to be 4, 5 and 6 years of age who have not interacted with complex rhythms have difficulty understanding them. When students begin at age 4-6 without interactive early childhood music classes, they can experience difficulties hearing and understanding the complexities, so the teacher might suggest they wait until they are older, as Sue Campbell also did.
It's time to move out of this paradigm and into one of deeper understanding of how musical knowledge is created. Music is a language and like any language, waiting until a child is 4 or 5 or older, doesn't make it easier to learn.
My own comments in Campbell's article were perilously close to being out of context, so I also wonder about those of my colleagues? I hope for Metro Parent to find a way to represent all aspects of music education without maligning any one or supporting another. There are as many ways to succeed as there are different parenting philosophies. And it is my hope that parents will find the philosophy that best suits their educational goals for their children.
There are many children who are ready much younger depending on their early childhood music education experiences. There is objective proof that babies can experience and understand complex rhythms, however, children who grow to be 4, 5 and 6 years of age who have not interacted with complex rhythms have difficulty understanding them. When students begin at age 4-6 without interactive early childhood music classes, they can experience difficulties hearing and understanding the complexities, so the teacher might suggest they wait until they are older, as Sue Campbell also did.
It's time to move out of this paradigm and into one of deeper understanding of how musical knowledge is created. Music is a language and like any language, waiting until a child is 4 or 5 or older, doesn't make it easier to learn.
My own comments in Campbell's article were perilously close to being out of context, so I also wonder about those of my colleagues? I hope for Metro Parent to find a way to represent all aspects of music education without maligning any one or supporting another. There are as many ways to succeed as there are different parenting philosophies. And it is my hope that parents will find the philosophy that best suits their educational goals for their children.
Catherine Whelan
