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Empowering the Whole Child: A Child-Centered Philosophy of Music Education

Naomi R. Cohen

College of Music, Michigan State University

MUS 860: Philosophical Considerations in Music Education

Dr. Karen Salvador

July 29, 2023

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Empowering the Whole Child: A Child-Centered Philosophy of Music Education

As a new educator, I find it difficult to think in the long-term about what I hope to

provide my students by means of their music education. When an outsider walks into my

classroom, I hope they see students actively engaged in music-making in a variety of ways - such

as singing and playing instruments, composing short melodies and rhythmic phrases using

manipulatives, or adding their own body percussion movements to a short song. This, however,

focuses on the what of music education and not the why. When I think of my philosophy of

music education, I hope to further develop the why in my teaching.

I used to think that music education was all about building a foundation of music

appreciation in children. While I think that thought process has merit, I believe it is only part of

what a good music educator does. Children are not stagnant vessels waiting to be filled with

knowledge. I posit that a good music educator engages the students they work with to their

fullest potential. Music education, then, should empower the child. An empowered child is one

that is unafraid to ask questions that strive for deeper learning, speak up against wrongs, and test

boundaries in the classroom because they feel safe to do so. As educators, we can empower the

child by amplifying their unique voices, by focusing on child-centered activities, and teaching

students to connect with one another.

Student Empowerment Through Educator Language

Educators have a responsibility to use their voices to speak up for students that are still

finding their voices. In the current state of music education, most music teachers still function as

the sole leader in their classroom; the choices made in regards to curriculum and methodology

are theirs alone, and students have little to no say in what they learn about. I argue that, in order

to fully engage and empower our students, educators can speak up against injustice in support of
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their classroom community. E. Jorgensen states that “speaking to the powerful in ways that may

be critical of their empowerment and empowering to those who have been disempowered is

threatening to those who hold power and do not wish to share it” (Jorgensen, 2014, p. 17). For so

long, music educators continued to engage with White-supremacist curriculum because there was

no easy way to speak out against injustice and no ears willing to listen. For example, this past

December, when planning my elementary school’s annual winter sing-a-long, my principal

wanted the closing number to be Jingle Bells. I remember trying to explain that, due to Jingle

Bells’ origins as a minstrel song, I wasn’t comfortable using it in my curriculum anymore. It was

overall, an uncomfortable conversation. However, the conversation was necessary: the eternal

use of the song would not have stopped if I had not spoken up. This is a much more mild

example of engaging with white supremacist views that permeate our curriculum; however, any

step forward is still progress towards equitable teaching.

Jorgensen argues that speaking up can be done without harm:

so in our speaking, we need to use our words carefully, not as weapons with which to destroy

others, but in ways that exemplify the very humanity, humility, carefulness, and mutual regard we

seek in our own actions. We need to seek to improve the situation and, where possible, empower

others by appealing to their best selves. (Jorgensen, 2014, p. 18)

I posit that taking such specific care in choosing words does more harm to the oppressed than

good. When engaging with antiracism, it is not one’s responsibility to placate the oppressor. If

educators are truly to empower their students, they must do so purposefully and confidently.

Words are powerful tools in the mouths of teachers. Our words are what help to shape the minds

of future generations. We must choose our words carefully, yes, but we must continue to

recognize the power of our words.

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Another way to empower students in the classroom with our words is by using direct and

correct language. When we speak in euphemisms, we speak around the identities of our students

and prevent them from reaching their fullest potential. In recent years, it has become the norm to

talk about race without talking about it. This language is then passed on to our students. J. Hess

states that “Elementary and middle school students I have taught readily avoided any mention of

race in class discussion - choosing colorblindness perhaps to avoid offending their peers. They

meant well” (Hess, 2017, p. 18). Students have been conditioned to ignore race as a factor of

human identity, and as a result, education has alienated our non-White students. Hess argues that

“When teachers recognize systems instead of faulting individuals in the community context, we

create a unique opportunity for the school to work creatively with the community to address

some of these issues collaboratively” (Hess, 2017, p. 31). Only when educators and students use

direct and specific language regarding race will teachers and students truly begin to “see” one

another. When educators and students critique systems of power, they are not always critiquing

the people in these systems. When we impart this knowledge upon our students, we empower

them to think critically about the world around them so that they can be agents of change in their

communities.

Centering the Child in the Classroom

Another important tenant of my philosophy of music education is that music education

must be child-centered. When an education is child-centered, the student’s learning becomes the

end goal, not the final product of the class or the ensemble performance. Returning to the

concept of student choice in music instruction, a child-centered music education also invites and

celebrates student choice as much as is practical in the public school setting. While it may not be

possible or practical to cater to each individual in a class of 20 fourth-graders, it is possible to

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seek input from the class on what they would like to learn about. Educational philosopher John

Dewey states that “the child is the starting point, the center, and the end. His development, his

growth, is the ideal. It alone furnishes the standard. To the growth of the child all studies are

subservient” (As cited in Rajan, 2013, p. 10). A child-centered classroom is one in which

Dewey’s words are realized; if the goal of the educator is a child’s growth, then that child should

be at the center of thought in the classroom.

Child-centered musical activities can be implemented as early as early childhood music

classes. R. Rajan states that “I have always believed (from instinct and experience) that the

children in a class provide the greatest resource for building a musical repertoire” (Rajan, 2013,

p. 10). As an individual, educators have one set of experiences to share with the class. However,

in a classroom setting, students can share their breadth of experiences as a class as people on an

equal field. In a child-centered classroom, all experiences are valid. Validating all student

experiences reminds me of teaching an early childhood music class during my undergraduate

degree. We were singing a song about counting to 10 - first in English, and then we went around

the room to see what other languages we could count in. My co-teacher and I observed

caregivers leading the class counting in Spanish, French, and Hebrew. Rajan further states that

“child-centered musical activities will encourage young children to continue to explore their

voices and rhythms, and each new discovery will hopefully foster a lifetime of meaningful

musical experiences” (Rajan, 2013, p. 13). When my colleague and I opened our instruction to

center individual students, we were centering different life experiences, which enriched the class

experience for all of the students present.

Children learn through play; by engaging with the world through discovery and joy,

students can try new things without fear of wrongdoing having lasting consequences. P.
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Kanellopoulos argues that play is an essential part of music education because of the creativity it

fosters in students. They argue for play over ritual, that “whereas ritual fixes patterns and

meaning of human activity, play demolishes those very structured patterns” (Kanellopoulos,

2021, p. 95). Through play and inquiry, children learn more than just content. They learn how to

engage with the world around them. Play is important in education because it can lead to

discoveries of how the world works. Kanellopoulos states that,

In a pedagogy of studious play, aspects of tradition - musical knowledge and musical practices

that have been developed by other people in other contexts over time and in different places -

become playful resources put into unexpected uses; they are means for making ever new

beginnings. (Kanellopoulos, 2021, p. 96)

Elementary music educators are most able to incorporate play into their classroom: singing

games, handheld manipulatives, creative composition projects - students can take the rules and

guidelines they have learned and upend them, leading the way towards new learning for all

involved. At the center of this play is the child’s innate inquiry; that is, through play, the student

is an agent of their own learning and discovery.

Connecting With All Learners

One of the most important facets of education is that all involved in its process can be

lifelong learners. Educators and students alike have the ability to learn from one another. In the

music classroom, this can look a few different ways. Returning to the counting song in my early

childhood music classroom, when students counted in languages I did not speak, they taught me

something new. Once, in my elementary classroom, I was teaching a rhythmic concept that

students were having a hard time understanding. One student asked a simple question that

completely reframed how I would go forward in teaching the concept. The student taught me a

new way of looking at my practice. This student was not a musical prodigy. They were, however,
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a good thinker, and that was helpful for their fellow students as well as their teacher. S. Bell

argues in Retrieval of “Being” in Early Childhood Music Education: Early Child Development

and Care that in these moment, “a blurring of boundaries between adult and child, temporarily

suspends labels of division in order to see the participants, allows for a learning that is mutually

transformative” (Bell, 2009, p. 824). When the students too can become the teacher, everyone in

the room benefits. My String Methods classes in my undergraduate degree gave my fellow

student a chance to teach. When it came time to learn about the cello, our professor (a violin

primary) made space for our cello-primary colleague to lead class for a week or two. Rather than

teaching us and making space for her lack of knowledge, our professor blurred the boundary

between teacher and student in order for the class to get the most out of the short time we could

spend with the cello. To this day, I play cello almost as well as violin because I had such a

knowledgeable teacher.

Fostering a collaborative learning environment can be simple, especially in the

elementary music classroom. When teachers and students are both invested in the learning

environment and outcomes, everyone benefits. Education is a collaborative process. Bell further

states that “music and movement education celebrates the notion of being-in-learning and

experiencing music together” (Bell, 2009, p. 825). When I introduce students to music they have

never heard before, they are able to open their eyes to the wider world of music education.

Likewise, when students submit songs to me through my Jam Jar, or perform music I’ve never

heard, my musical horizons widen. In one of my fourth-grade classes, a quiet girl offered to sing

for a Share Day once. I had never heard this student sing as a soloist, but my fourth grade classes

in general that year were accomplished singers, easily able to sing in three-part rounds without

much assistance on my part. I watched as her classmates watched her with bright and smiling
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faces as she quietly sang along to the song as it played from the projector. She swayed wildly

from side-to-side from nerves as she tried something new. Her classmates cheered when the song

came on - everyone knew it! By the end of the song, they were all singing along. If it weren’t for

“golden hour” by JVKE, none of us would have ever been able to share in that beautiful moment.

These vignettes from my experiences in the classroom have a common thread:

connection. In order to empower the whole child, the primary goal of the educator should be to

connect with the child. Connections can form in many different ways in music education -

forming a tight bond with your choral ensemble, for example, or keeping in touch with the flute

section of your collegiate marching band. In the book Complicating, Considering, and

Connecting Music Education, author L. K. Richerme argues that “...music-making is and might

be ‘good for’ forming connections, both to ourselves and to our multiple environments”

(Richerme, 2020, p. 111). When we engage in music education, we are empowered to not only

connect with the people and musics in the classroom, but also musics and peoples beyond the

classroom. Richerme further states that “Music-making… is but one of many ways in which

humans can connect with themselves and others” (Richerme, 2020, p. 114). This virtual choir

allowed each participant to connect with one another in a way that the pandemic was otherwise

making impossible.

When students misbehave, they are not simply seeking attention. Recently, I have learned

to frame this behavior in my mind as “students are seeking connection.” When I gave a teaching

demonstration to a school I was seeking employment at, I taught a group of first-grade students.

Most of them were on their best behavior as I was a stranger in the room. One student repeatedly

rolled into the middle of the circle and hit themselves on the butt to garner a reaction from me

and her classmates. Instead of admonishing the student, I gave verbal redirections and praised the
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student as soon as she was meeting the predetermined behavioral expectations. While the

behavior did not necessarily improve over the course of the 30 minutes I was teaching, I

reflected to my observers that relationships and rapport take time to develop. I knew that this

student would be one I would make time outside of the music class to connect with in order to

foster a more positive relationship with this young learner.

Conclusion

My philosophy of music education has changed greatly in the few years I’ve been a

practicing educator. I have come to realize that an educator does not need to focus on music

specifically to foster a lifelong love of music in their students. On my first day of my first music-

education-specific course during my undergraduate degree, my professor facilitated a discussion

of why the 20 of us in the class wanted to be teachers in the first place. As we each went around

the room to share, a common theme arose. Most students (like myself) wanted to be music

teachers because we were educated by wonderful teachers that fostered a love of learning in us.

What these backstories had in common was not that students had a strong background in Orff or

Kodály instruction at the elementary level, or that everyone’s bands and choirs received glowing

(or terrible) reviews from Festivals and competitions. Those of us that wanted to become

teachers did so because of the connections we made in classrooms as we grew up.

Empowering students through student choice, child-centered activities, and connection in

the classroom is one of many ways to teach music to children. When educators teach with the

child in mind, they are able to build the strongest of foundations in their students, fostering a

lifelong love of learning. I have come to believe that it does not matter what music one teaches,

but what matters most is why one teaches in the way that they do.
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References:

Bell, S. (2009). Retrieval of “being” in early childhood music education: Early child

development and care. CLXXIX/6: Music in the early years—Research, theory and

practice. Early Child Development and Care, 179(6), 823–835.

https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430902944866

Hess, J. (2017). Equity and Music Education: Euphemisms, Terminal Naivety, and Whiteness.

Action, Criticism & Theory for Music Education, 16(3), 15–47.

https://doi.org/10.22176/act16.3.15

Jorgensen, E. R. (2014). Values and Philosophizing About Music Education. Philosophy of

Music Education Review, 22(1), 5–21.

https://www.proquest.com/docview/1529044826/abstract/2B81132D106242F6PQ/9

Kanellopoulos, P. A. (2021). Studious Play as an “Archê” of Creative Music-Making: Repositing

“the Scandal of Democracy” in Music Education. Action, Criticism, and Theory for

Music Education, 20(2), 79–109.

http://ezproxy.msu.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1314767&site=eds-live

Rajan, R. S. (2013). I’ve got rhythm! Fostering child-centered musical activities for

preschoolers. General Music Today, 26(2), 9.

http://ezproxy.msu.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=edsgea&AN=edsgcl.339143103&site=eds-live

Richerme, L. K. (2020). Complicating, considering, and connecting music education (MSU

Music Library MT1 .R53 2020). Indiana University Press. http://ezproxy.msu.edu/login?

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url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=cat09242a&AN=msuc.b135362994&site=eds-live