I thought that the music education blogosphere would quieten down during the summer holidays but it seems that the community is taking the downtime as an opportunity to get thoughts written down. The four posts that follow are particularly strong examples.
Jonathan Savage: Does music education need qualified teachers?
Jonathan has always been one of the most passionate bloggers and this article is no exception. It’s an interesting point for debate and fits in well with the CPD theme of my recent posts. In terms of answering the question, I have mixed thoughts and feelings on the matter. I’m generally of the opinion that more training, reflection and mentorship is a good thing for teachers of all subjects. That said, one of the best music teachers I’ve ever worked with was unqualified. But that’s the topic of another blog post altogether…
Liz Glead: A reflection on my summer resolutions 2014
Liz has updated her WordPress theme and followed up her great post about tables with this reflective post. It’s particularly nice to see someone reflect back on their new year resolutions. It’s all too easy to shy away from the things we said we’d do and didn’t. I’d love to see a few more posts like this one.
Steven Berryman: Are art and music so different?
This month’s TeachTalk: Music debate is from Steven Berryman and makes a comparison between art and music in schools, which follows on nicely from a previous editorial comparing music and PE. One quote really stands out for me here:
The Art Department at my secondary school was always the “other”.
It was always important to me that music never seemed to be “the other” to anyone and I find that this can only be achieved with a balance of equality, engagement and excellence.
John Finney: Sitting by Lake Geneva (i)
I first came across Piaget while studying philosophy. I was very taken with his ideas and, as such, I’m always interested to consider the application of his thinking to music. In this post, John introduces us to Piaget and shares a fictional dialogue with him. This style of blog-writing is very much in line with John’s recent advocacy for ‘thick descriptions’. I wonder what else he’ll turn this style to.