Halfway Point

• Do you agree with the idea of staying out of assessment when a child's creativity is at stake?
• Would you ever want or need to assess a child's creative ability? How?
• How do you define musical creativity? Is creativity important to your philosophy of music education?

• Which would you be most comfortable teaching and/or assessing: Composition, improvisation, or arrangement?

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A teacher is an enabler; a facilitator and a guide. Once the student leaves the side of the parent at the age of 6, a connection needs to be made with a teacher from a guardian's standpoint. Without this sense of monitorization, I feel the child gets lost, bored, and unfocused. As music educators, connection can come from a variety of angles. 1.) Every student has their own particular form of interpretation or expression. This form of expression keeps the student involved in what's happening at all times. 2.) Enabling the students to be involved with activity from the getgo allows the students a freedom from everyday boredom within the classroom. They're allowed to express themselves how they like artistically. 3.) Music creates a sense of focus that makes every kid try harder and generally focus more. When the monitor becomes lost or tied up with another idea, the students rapidly lose focus or interest.
Creativity could be assigned. Maybe to older children through projects on their own or group work within the classroom. Creativity does not have to be hand fed to the students, but I do believe that the teacher needs to foster a constructive path for students to follow. For instance, I once knew a 3rd grade teacher that had students write poems. One child wrote about daisies, another about a cartoon character. The last child wrote about killing another teacher in the building. Creativity NEEDS a limit for situations like this. (p.s. the child is being allowed to go back to school and the threatened teacher has nothing to do but pray)
I would feel most comfortable teaching improvisation. The summer before my senior year of high school I had the opportunity to attend the Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Arts. The camp featured an hour morning session of free improvisation using the the instrument you came with. At the beginning of the five weeks, the vocalists all looked at each other like (how are we supposed to get creative using bee bops and do doo's??) Little did everyone know that improv was secretly all about being comfortable about exploring limits and understanding the theme. It was an extremely fun time that I would LOVE to share with others.