Music, part II

It has always been my hope that I could use music in the classroom to instill in my students a reflective disposition. I know this is contrary to the idea that music should be used to allow students to make meaning of the curriculum they are otherwise exposed to, but when I think back on the music that I was involved in, or which had the greatest impact on me, it was not the ability of music to allow me to understand other parts of the curriculum which was of greatest importance, it was the ability of music to help me understand myself that was important. When I think back on all of the really interesting, and in some cases great, music that I still listen to, either literally or figuratively through the music in my mind, it is music's ability to calm, to inspire and to motivate that still occurs and constantly amazes me when it does. We are always urged to help our students develop and refine the skills of meta-cognition and I think that because music has an ability to make the listener stop and think that it is important to make music important to the lives of students.