Randall Allsup opens his book Remixing the Classroom with three stories that point toward the differences between open and closed forms of education. In a style similar to Jorgensen’s Pictures of Music Education, these stories help Allsup lay the foundation of his argument of an open philosophy of music education. These ideas are similar to ones that Jorgensen discussed at various times in Pictures. Jorgensen cautioned us with her metaphors, attempting to show that while there are obvious benefits to certain teaching styles, they are not without their consequences.
Near the beginning of Chapter 1 Allsup is describing Dapper Dan’s Boutique and how his fashion designed was marked with innovation and a lack of conformity. Allsup continued, “And unlike today’s schools, measurement and assessment, essential aspects of the creative process, were reached through qualitative, idiosyncratically defined means.” My take away from this paragraph is a strong disapproval of assessment (epically summative assessment) in lieu of a flexible, artistic, and unpredictable experience.
My mind immediately went to band programs in this country, where contests and assessment are highly emphasized. But what if there was more gray area in those assessments than we realize? What if the problem wasn’t whether or not we should have assessment? Perhaps the problem lies is who those assessments are really for.
As a teacher, I was usually highly stressed in October, and again in April, as the annual UIL contests for Marching Band and Concert & Sightreading approached. My stress was rooted in my desire for my students to have a positive experience, a culminating event where they could showcase the work they had put in up to that point. The ratings mattered to them, but they mattered more for me.
What was more important and valuable to my students was the formative assessments they received each day in rehearsals, sectionals, and private lessons. I had the inside knowledge of where each student’s abilities laid at the beginning of the school year or rehearsal cycle, and I could assess how those abilities grew.
Where those summative assessments had a small, momentary impact on my students, they were my lifeblood. To outsiders, to people teaching in other schools in my region, to Fine Arts Directors at those districts I wished to one day work at, the summative assessments that we received at those contests determined my worth as an educator. That’s not to say that they don’t understand the difference between formative and summative assessment or that they don’t value to growth a student makes, but when looking through stacks of hundreds of applications it’s an easy way to start categorizing. Over the course of several years, my students make some wonderful advancements in their musical abilities. Growth that I was extremely proud of. But we never reached what the UIL considered “superior” and my worth as an educator was deemed lower.
To me, systems that rob teachers of their confidence and is more of a detriment to a student’s education.
Zooming our lens out a little further, the problem with closed vs open systems and ideas of master-apprentice style teaching only becomes a problem if a teacher begins to change their teaching in a way that puts those summative assessments and the opinions of others ahead of the growth and education of their students. You see this a lot, where the only goal of a music program is to win a certain contest or achieve a certain mark. That’s when a closed system is used for power, control, and the fulfillment of a teacher’s goals rather than the student’s.
I think that we can make a bigger impact on the quality of music education in this country by finding ways of better supporting our teachers. As the public becomes increasingly critical of teachers and more education “experts” write about what’s wrong with classroom dynamics and its hierarchy, we are slowly losing our educators. People who have a gift for impacting the lives of young people find themselves perusing other careers. Assuming we didn’t hire already broken teachers, perhaps a better question to be asking is – what are we doing that’s breaking them?