On Specialists
“The artist is not a special kind of man, but every man is a special kind of artist.”
A child writing out her part on a score.
Once, a professor asked Kindergarten children if they could sing, paint, and draw. They all answered with an enthusiastic "Yes!" He returned to his university and asked the same question of his college students. He received a much more lukewarm response. What happened in those intervening years? Do we, as teachers, contribute to this loss of enthusiasm for music?
In some schools, music specialists work with the children in music. These specialists are often quite talented people. But putting music in the hands of a specialist sends children a particular message: that you need to be a special person to do music. We need to pause and remind ourselves that, as Montessori teachers, it's our responsibility to aid the development of the whole child. If we don't have a background in music or if we don't understand it, we can take comfort: we don't have to be musicians to make music in the classroom. A very limited means and a little enthusiasm are enough to spark our children's interest in music.
For the sounds of music are merely the sounds of a different alphabet, a different language. Remember that, as human cultures developed, human beings used both language and music for spiritual and intellectual expression. No human civilization has ever existed that didn't have both music and language. Both require cooperation and agreement of sound and order, both rely on pattern, and both contain mystery and magic.
If we consider the child's mind to be a fertile field into which we must sow as many seeds as possible, then we ourselves need to be interested in all subjects. Among the seeds we sow are those of music.
For too long teachers have thought of themselves as musically illiterate, incapable of teaching music. But if we can listen, if we know letters, if we know some songs, if we know how to write and count, we can do it. We don't have to be musical experts ourselves. As teachers, we only need to have a basic knowledge of the music materials and have spent some time practicing with some rudimentary musical concepts. Besides, we can learn along with the children, and, in many cases, we can learn from the children.
Just as there are specialists in other fields, there are those in music who have special gifts and skills, but that doesn't detract from our ability to learn basic tools and vocabulary and present them to the children so that they are conversant with, appreciative of, and active participants in music, that great achievement of human spirit and intellect.
Adapted from a lecture given by J. McKeever at the Montessori Institute of Milwaukee, 2009