Kratus, J. (2007). Music education at the tipping point. Music Educators Journal, 94(2), 42-48. doi:10.1177/002743210709400209
In this article Kratus discusses many different aspects of how music is becoming less popular among schools which is resulting in a tipping point. The discussion of this articles arises many arguments that some might agree or disagree with such as the main point which discussed how music outside of school explored a wider range of music, than that which would be taught in a school setting. Overall I found this article very interesting since it discussed the many reasons as to why school music programs are becoming less popular. Reading this article helped me see as well as understand what could make a good music program.
As a future teacher in the making this sparks ideas that could be brought in developing a course curriculum for example. In the article it discussed that music in schools usually sticks to only one genre of music, and that is classical. In my opinion if I was a teacher trying to develop a course curriculum I would divide the music into three aspects and those would be music theory, history and singing/instrumental. I would develop this course to have the basics of music theory and history, as well as talk about the different genres of music such as r&b, jazz, folk, sacred, spiritual, etc and how each genre has their own unique style. Later on in this course I would divide each genre into sections so that in the end the student would perform a song of that specific genre. This way the taste of the students would not only be in classical music but they would be exposed to many other genres of music.
Some elements of the article that surprised me was that so many music schools in the US had such low rates of attendance which shocked me because usually all schools whether it is elementary or high school, usually have a type of music program like a choir or band class. To me this was very eye opening to see that the interest of music has gone down because I can not comprehend how why students would not take music courses. However this might also be because the program in the school is not the greatest which would answer this question and explain the drop in interest in music.
My opinion on this article is that it is a great one because as a student wanting to be a teacher in the future, this gives me a great perspective as to what students would be more interested in doing as well as what courses would be of interest to students and which would not be. Overall I would like to thank the author of this article for making this reading a very interesting one and as well risky because many people could disagree with his opinion and I applaud him for that since it is not always easy to take risks especially when it arises debate among the readers.
In this article Kratus discusses many different aspects of how music is becoming less popular among schools which is resulting in a tipping point. The discussion of this articles arises many arguments that some might agree or disagree with such as the main point which discussed how music outside of school explored a wider range of music, than that which would be taught in a school setting. Overall I found this article very interesting since it discussed the many reasons as to why school music programs are becoming less popular. Reading this article helped me see as well as understand what could make a good music program.
As a future teacher in the making this sparks ideas that could be brought in developing a course curriculum for example. In the article it discussed that music in schools usually sticks to only one genre of music, and that is classical. In my opinion if I was a teacher trying to develop a course curriculum I would divide the music into three aspects and those would be music theory, history and singing/instrumental. I would develop this course to have the basics of music theory and history, as well as talk about the different genres of music such as r&b, jazz, folk, sacred, spiritual, etc and how each genre has their own unique style. Later on in this course I would divide each genre into sections so that in the end the student would perform a song of that specific genre. This way the taste of the students would not only be in classical music but they would be exposed to many other genres of music.
Some elements of the article that surprised me was that so many music schools in the US had such low rates of attendance which shocked me because usually all schools whether it is elementary or high school, usually have a type of music program like a choir or band class. To me this was very eye opening to see that the interest of music has gone down because I can not comprehend how why students would not take music courses. However this might also be because the program in the school is not the greatest which would answer this question and explain the drop in interest in music.
My opinion on this article is that it is a great one because as a student wanting to be a teacher in the future, this gives me a great perspective as to what students would be more interested in doing as well as what courses would be of interest to students and which would not be. Overall I would like to thank the author of this article for making this reading a very interesting one and as well risky because many people could disagree with his opinion and I applaud him for that since it is not always easy to take risks especially when it arises debate among the readers.