PRESIDENT’S COLUMN...
Preserving the Past, Preparing the Future Rob Nichols, MMEA President
When you think about the concepts of “Preserving the Past” or “Preparing the Future,” many ideas may come to mind. Are these concepts that you can incorporate into a “theme” that will supplement your plans and goals for the upcoming year? For me, applications for my program, professional growth, MMEA, and music education in general immediately come to mind as areas that potentially supplement my plans and goals for the year.
For my program, I can preserve the past by recognizing traditions of the program, whether new or established, and making a conscious effort to discover new strategies to build upon those traditions. I can prepare the future by establishing not only
short-term
goals for the current year, but continuing to develop long-term goals that will build upon each other working toward a vision for the program two, three, five years from now.
For professional growth, I can preserve the past by continuing to network with icons in the profession, and not only incorporate “tried and true” teaching strategies with my students, but also using their wealth of historical knowledge to further my appreciation for those educators that have made significant impacts on students, programs, and music education in
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have one specific audience in mind; below are a few thoughts that motivated me in developing this plan:
Although we are all passionate about music and the impact it has on our lives, the reality is that the majority of students that are currently involved in our programs at the elementary
level, middle
school level, high school level, and even collegiate level (non-music majors, of course) will not pursue music education and/or music performance as a career. These students will, however, be lifetime
Missouri. I can prepare the future by seeking new knowledge that will aid in the achievement of future goals.
For MMEA, together we can preserve the past and prepare the future through unified efforts to connect master educators with young educators, as our young educators represent the future of music education in Missouri.
For music education in general? I plan to be proactive in advocating for music education through a series of “connections” and efforts throughout the year. However, I
These students
will...be
consumers and potential advocates for music and music education.
lifetime consumers and potential advocates for music and music education.
Far too often, when we encourage advocacy for comprehensive music education, we target the current issues that may have a lasting, many times negative, impact on our programs. In fact, for many the concept of advocating for our programs has become synonymous
with
defending our programs. In general, we have
become accustomed to using statistics that connect the importance of music education with regard to test scores, math and reading skills, brain development, graduation rates, and the list goes on. I am hopeful, however, that we are also promoting music for the sake of music and the impact that music has on the human spirit. As a result, we often view the use of such available information and statistics as a strategy to recruit into our programs, promote our programs, or, again, defend our programs with parents, administrators, community members, legislators, or others
MISSOURI SCHOOL MUSIC
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