This collection of thoughts and ideas are only the combination of my upbringing (both socially and musically), my environment,

and the people that I have come into contact with.

In every successful business there is one budget line that never gets cut. Its called roduct !evelopment" # and its the $ey to any companys future growth. %usic education is critical to the product development of this nations most important resource # our children.&

'ohn (y$es # resident, )*+

The purpose of education is to ensure the enrichment and development of our students through teaching the various aspects of life through lesson and real,life e-periences. %y role as an educator is to provide my students the things essential to ma$ing the as successful as possible in any wal$ of life they decide to venture. I am going to teach any and every one willing to learn. also to influence/persuade those who are not readily willing. I will reach the diversity of my students by incorporating different cultures and bac$grounds in my lesson plans. %y community of learners is defined by the influence of the village. 0eferring to the old saying,& It ta$es a village to raise a child& It ta$es a community to raise its youth. I believe that children learn best when you relate something they are familiar with to new material. I feel that each student should learn things that are fundamental in their development. however I also feel that after a certain level of achievement they should be groomed towards more specific fields. There is nothing wrong with using the 1tried and true1, but as society evolves so should our teaching. 2-perience is the best teacher. 2-posing students to other methods of education can potentially give them a new perspective. 3e cannot assume that students will learn these things at home. I agree with this statement for college students. however younger students need more supervision to avoid a situation that could be developmentally detrimental to their learning. 4nderstanding and becoming a better,rounded individual at your own pace is more important than getting through the system. If we teach students how to thin$ rather than teach them things that will change over time they will be more will to adapt.

5ver time, there has been a decline in music education in schools, due to budget cuts and other miscellaneous obstacles. This eliminates the essential doctrines that 5678 music can teach. 5ur heavy emphasis on the sciences, in place of the arts, has caused there to be a lac$ of both self,discipline and understanding of emotion in our current generation. *owever, the 9ree$s found that music was essential. (o the :uestion that comes to mind is, 3hen did we develop this bac$ to the basics style of teaching;& That reading, writing, and math are more important than music. %usic is important in both our curriculum and society because it, unli$e any other discipline, deals with the aesthetic of being human, the beauty of vulnerability. I find it hard to believe that a student who could e-press or be in contact with a student that could e-press the emotions evo$ed in true musical growth could be irrational enough to be inhumane in any manner. This roduct !evelopment& that 'ohn (y$es spea$s of, directly addresses this issue. In my opinion, a music teacher, is a precious thing. This opinion may be bias, but I, as I am sure that my colleagues could agree to, can remember specific moments when I have been truly consumed by music. 3hether from a performers or listeners point of view, there was something that made me/us (music teacher(s)) decide that music is what we would devote our life to. eople devote themselves to multiple things, whether it is their religion, family values, or even their own self,preservation. 6o offense to the other disciplines, as they too are necessary, but I personally have never heard of someones life being changed by a math problem. <lthough, pieces li$e *olsts First Suite in Eb and 9raingers Lincolnshire Posy have been ma$ing and will continue to emotional moments forever. %y thoughts above are not foreign to the ideas in the minds of musicians around the world and these are the things that ma$e us different from the rest. Ill be the first to say that music has made me vulnerable and that I open up to music no matter what every time possible. I understand that correct notes, rhythms, and pitch are necessary to even attempt to ma$e music, however those things are simply the tools we need to create the emotions that the composer had in mind. 6o one aims to completely pronounce every word correctly when reading silently. they aim to follow a story. to e-perience the emotions of the te-t. 3e should e-perience the music through emotion. This ensures to create not performers and listeners, but lovers of music. I as a music teacher want to share the feelings that Ive e-perienced through music with the

world. I want everyone to $now how music ma$es me feel and how it has always given me more than I could ever put in. This collection of thoughts and ideas are simply the combination of my upbringing (both socially and musically), my environment, and the people that I have come into contact with.