Debate: Music teachers, by God, lower grades!

We teachers discuss
There are obvious problems with this, partly for the entire school system, where music teachers are clearly the most culpable in fueling the rapid inflation of grades. In addition, this is counterproductive to the music teaching profession in many ways, the debater writes.

This week we had a Lucia Train at the school I work at, eight brave girls who sang for the whole school accompanied by my classmates. In two of the songs, the audience started spontaneously clapping, which was nice for about two bars, and then all the students in the school picked up the tempo and were completely out of time. The tragic part of this story is that many of these students get very high grades in music despite not having the basics at all. This is not a unique phenomenon, as music is one of the subjects in which Swedish students get the highest grades while the level of knowledge is very low.

There are obvious problems with this, partly for the entire school system, where music teachers are clearly the most culpable in fueling the rapid inflation of grades. Additionally, this is counterproductive to the music teaching profession in many ways. School administrators are learning that it is possible to cut back on time and resources in music, but students will still get high grades. The topic becomes completely trivial in the eyes of many students and colleagues from other subjects. We music teachers must stop this matter. If time in the subject is reduced and resources are cut off, the result will have a negative impact, which must be seen in the students’ grades.

Some forms of contempt for knowledge

I see many explanations for this unfortunate situation. It is very “safe” for a music teacher to give high grades and keep students happy and satisfied because this will never be revealed in the education system, as is the case for example for mathematics and languages.

There is also a lack of epistemological tradition in the subject of music, both in terms of the concrete content of the course and the level at which a grade should be awarded. Sometimes I have the impression that knowledge of music is considered something “dangerous” or “difficult”. To take a concrete example, my book has been criticized because, for example, I covered the concepts of “root, third, and fifth” which are too difficult for students to learn.

I would encourage my music teaching colleagues to look at and think about other topics. If students are expected to learn the periodic table in chemistry or what nouns and adjectives are in Swedish, isn’t it reasonable to expect them to learn that the chord tones are called the root, third, and fifth? If they were expected to solve equations and calculate the area of ​​a circle in mathematics, would it be impossible to know that there is such a thing as a tonic and a dominant?

There seems to be a kind of disdain for knowledge, a fear of touching music theory and a reluctance of students to understand music. If people had learned music properly in primary school, and received reasonable and clear grades and instruments so that they could really expand their interests after completing school, the situation of the subject would be completely different. Think of all the positive externalities that music brings, the entire population is entitled to that, not just the upper echelons of society where parents set their children up to play musical instruments as a leisure activity.

Together we can raise the profile

Music is essentially mathematics, and the subject of music has a lot more to learn than typical subjects. If we can get close to them, I am fully convinced that the status of theme music will rise slowly but surely. This applies to the organization and selection of materials, clarity of assessment and high level of grades. In a student group of 15 students, the standard should be so high that two or three can get an A in my very personal opinion. Above all, it should be clear and concrete to students what is expected and not just have the teacher say “Well, that sounded good…” and then set a very high grade.

My wish is that we music teachers sit down and talk about the concrete and clear end goals for 9th grade, what knowledge is needed to get there, in what order it should be presented all the way from 1st to 9th grade, what is a reasonable level for them to get high grades and that we support each other. So that everyone is given the necessary conditions to conduct teaching where students learn something that develops strongly and clearly every year.

There is much more to be done, and I am convinced that together we can raise the profile of our important topic.

Patrick Anderson, music teacher and author of educational materials

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