Our national organization, NAfME, has recently announced a brilliant new advocacy movement, Broader Minded, the full scope of which can be accessed at broaderminded.com. The compelling talking points are split into one of two categories, either "inside the bubbles" or "beyond the bubbles." The areas included in the "inside the bubbles" section address issues of academic achievement, brain development and filling in the gaps in student achievement and engagement. Each of the bullet points made in this section of the brochure is linked to a scholarly article from publications including, but not limited to, the Journal of Research in Music Education, Scientific American, and the National Educational Longitudinal Study. And, moreover, the citations are exactly the length (one to two sentences) that could be most useful when encountering a person who holds a position of power and with whom you have just a few moments to impress with your message.


The second section of the brochure deals with those areas that fall "beyond the bubbles" and that can be clustered into the areas of "inherent benefits", and "21st century skills." These benefits and skills are somewhat less well documented by research than the "inside the bubbles" areas that are listed above and outlined more thoroughly on the NAfME website, but these areas beg to be deeply considered as we embark on a summer of thought, reflection, and rejuvenation in preparation for the challenges that await us when we return to school in August.

To avoid stealing too much of NAfME's thunder, I will only explore a few of the "inherent benefits" here. As I am prone to do, maybe because I cringe when a building or district administrator suggests that students are only "playing" (as opposed to studying or analyzing or critiquing, etc.) in a band or orchestra class, I will try to couch the ideas in terms of an ensemble experience, since that may be the most misunderstood aspect of student music experiences in the minds of those who have not been there themselves. Let's first take the idea of "reflective learning", the second of six "inherent benefits" discussed in the brochure. The description suggests that "students reflect on failures and successes through the creative process, and derive a sense of their own competencies, interests, and challenges." The sometimes daunting reality of ensemble experiences, certainly adjudicated ones, is that not all performances are what one might classify as "superior". And that is okay, when you think about it. The wise teacher can make the achievement of nearly any rating an educational experience. Sometimes ratings earned are well deserved and sometimes they just aren't a fair or accurate description of the performance. But they nearly always provide some source material for reflection and learning, if we chose to find it.

This ties pretty well with the fifth of the bullet points, aptly and colorfully titled "grit". The description of grit in this context goes like this, "In a high-level performance environment, hard work and dedicated practice predict success far more than innate ability. Music performance offers opportunities to fail. Students learn the value of persistence, and of working hard for an uncertain outcome." As this implies, there is no guarantee that hard work or talent will inevitably lead to the desired result. It is often the opportunity to fail that leads to the greatest success. We take risks every time we get up to perform. Every time a musician takes the stage, there is the possibility of splitting a note or having a memory lapse, but that does not deter most from continuing to pursue the life-affirming experience that music is for so many of us. We hear of many actors or musicians who have been an overnight success, when in reality they have been struggling far below anyone's radar for many years until this "overnight" success happens. I recall a trumpet teacher of mine telling me that "when you can pick up your instrument cold, and hit that note solidly 99 times out of 100 attempts, then, and only then, are you ready to perform it." As with athletics, it is often about who wants it more, and who works harder to get it, than about who is the most talented.

The sixth of the "inherent benefits" talks about "multiple ways of knowing," outlining the view that "music study promotes fluency in knowledge systems beyond the linguistic and mathematical, enabling a deeper and broader understanding of our world and of the human experience." This may be one of the most difficult "inherent benefits" to explain to a person who lives in the current educational climate that so elevates the importance of the linguistic and the mathematical to the exclusion of nearly all other ways of knowing and doing. When we consider that all language is a symbol system of some type, and that music is one of the very few languages that transcend culture, geography and the spoken word, we do have a wonderful opportunity here. Maybe some of our students can help give us some descriptors and analogies (albeit most likely of the linguistic variety) to use in this area with those who are less well informed about this deeper and broader understanding of human experience that music experiences provide.

While it is not the stated intent of the "multiple ways of knowing" as described in the bullet point, I suggest we have another valuable possibility here in that there are multiple "correct" ways of approaching performance expectations. I recall earlier this spring hearing at least four different ensembles over the course of two weeks perform the same piece of band literature (one of the numerous joys of judging or running large ensemble festivals where student work is presented and celebrated); each of the four performances was noticeably different, but all were "correct" in the broadest sense of the word. They all essentially communicated the composer's intent but with the uniqueness that four different directors and groups of students brought to the performance experience. Each was excellent in many ways and all were musically satisfying, albeit unique from one another. Think about how we study various interpretations of a particular symphony and many of us can even identify a recording by a particular orchestra or conductor based on the unique character of the given performance. All are marvelous in their own way, but each is different, exhibiting a different, but I believe equally valid, manifestation of the concept of "multiple ways of knowing."