The Educated Citizen and Music's Part

Democracy’s survival is dependent on the educated citizens that actively take part in it. An educated citizen is someone who is aware of his or her surroundings, the laws and regulations that he or she lives by, and the actions that are necessary in order to prevail in different situations. The understanding of the role of education in democracy is extremely important to develop educated citizens. Today, public schools are responsible for teaching students how to become an educated citizen.

Being aware of one’s surroundings is vital to being an educated citizen. The awareness of one’s surroundings includes being aware of matters such as community and world politics and cultural events and practices. It is truly about being an intellectual and taking an active role with that intellectuality. Being aware of laws and regulations is being aware of what governs one’s surrounds. Laws and regulations are made to prevent chaos and maintain order, and it is important for every citizen to understand and uphold his or her laws and regulations for the common good. Democracy is not just held together by laws and regulations, but it is held together by democratic ideas and the people who come together to make, change, and uphold them to better their community. Being aware of the actions that are necessary in order to prevail in different situations means knowing how to handle situations that occur with prior knowledge and being aware of the factors that affect the situation. In maintaining democracy and prevailing in certain situations, an educated citizen would consider his or her surroundings, the laws and regulations that affect the situation, and the factors that are specific to the situation. Also, that same educated citizen would also take into consideration that a decision based on personal fulfillment that is not beneficial to the community as a whole is in mostly all cases the wrong decision.

Public schools are responsible for teaching students how to be educated students. Many times there are regulations made in order to ensure the responsibility of and pressure the schools to produce educated citizens. An example of this is the No Child Left Behind Act. The No Child Left Behind Act was an initiative taken by George W. Bush in order to push public schools to ensure that every child would become an educated citizen (Aldridge 9). The main problem with this initiative is that it creates a standard of mediocrity and does not allow children to excel at higher levels, and it also prevents many children with disabilities from learning at their own levels when they cannot necessarily achieve what is required of them at the time. The other side of the standard created by the No Child Left Behind Act is that it pushes teachers to focus more on those children with disabilities that can achieve the standard because in some cases, many of those children were ignored in the past. Another problem is that it pushes many schools to only focus on subject areas that their students will be tested on such as Math and English. Democracy does not rely on those subjects alone, and an educated citizen needs to have a broader range of knowledge in order uphold democracy. “As we have noted, schools are inextricably linked to the communities they serve through social, political, economic, and cultural interests,” (Aldridge 11). Math and English can also be learned through students’ interests in other subject areas that focus on social, political, economic, and cultural interests. Also, learning Math or English through another subject teaches students how to apply the knowledge they have gained as en educated citizen would. Overall, the No Child Left Behind Act is preventing many schools from producing educated citizens even though this was not George W. Bush’s intent.

Public schools should not only teach their students what is now consider core content areas, English, Math, Science, and Technology, but content area, such as History, Political Science, Philosophy, Fine Arts, Music, Theatre, Communications, Film, and even Dance, which support students’ intellectual, social, and personal development (Portrait of a Teacher). Also, many of these subjects that are consider secondary can help students to develop their own individual and cultural strengths while learning to appreciate other cultures and individualities of the students in their learning community. Schools should create communities in their classrooms that are safe and supportive for their students to learn about not just their community’s issues but global issues of class, gender, race, ethnicity, language, sexual orientation, age, and people with special needs. Social interaction is also key in the development of an educated citizen, and students should be taught from an early age how to social interact with being respectful to each other. Part of that social interaction is for students to learn how to communicate clearly with each other in all content areas, not solely in their English class (Portrait of a Teacher).

Public schools play a major role in the future of democracy. Democracy is dependent on its citizens, and without educated citizens, our democracy will fall apart. Public schools are responsible for teaching their students to become educated citizens. Our government clearly recognizes the importance of public schools by initiating regulations that hold public schools responsible for their students; though, not all of the regulations made by the government have had beneficial results. Ultimately, public schools should teach a broad range of content areas in addition to core content areas in order to teach students to develop the necessary knowledge to become educated citizens that take an active role in their democracy.

Music plays a major role in being an educated citizen. An educated citizen is someone who is aware of his or her surroundings, the laws and regulations that he or she lives by, and the actions that are necessary in order to prevail in different situations. An educated citizen is aware of their surroundings which include their culture and the culture of others. An essential part to every culture has always been music. The ancient Greeks even had bards who used music as a portal from generation to generation to pass down their poems full of history and cultural traditions.

Music plays a major role in culture and is extremely beneficial to a student’s education. Music, along with its development and role in society, has always gone hand-in-hand with the culture, events, and quality of life. This is a result of the artistic expression of composers and artists who made an impact during their times and are making an impact today. Many pieces were commissioned, composed, and performed in response to the events of September 11, 2001 that had such a hard impact on our country. An earlier example of this occurrence is Beethoven’s 9th Symphony in D minor premiered in 1824. The symphony consists of four movements; the first three movements are orchestra, and the last movement is orchestra and choral. The words to the choral part are from An die Freude or Ode to Joy, a poem by Friedrich Schiller written in 1785 that had inspired Beethoven’s republican ideas even from his youth. The 9th Symphony is seen as equal to Shakespeare’s Hamlet because it had such an impact that not only does it move its audiences, but it moved Western Music into the Romantic Era (Lane). Keep in mind, Beethoven was completely deaf when he composed and conducted; he could not even have the privilege of hearing his own masterpiece.

"The master, though placed in the midst of this confluence of music, heard nothing of it all and was not even sensible of the applause of the audience at the end of his great work, but continued standing with his back to the audience, [and beating that time,] till Fraulien Ungher, who had sung the contralto part, turned him, or induced him to turn around and face the people, who were still clapping their hands, and giving way to the greatest demonstrations of pleasure. His turning around, and the sudden conviction thereby forced on everybody that he had not done so before [because he could not hear what was going on,] acted like an electric shock on all present, and a volcanic explosion of sympathy and admiration followed, which was repeated again and again, and seemed as if it would never end." (Grove, Lane)

Music has a huge impact in many peoples’ lives and cultures. Beethoven’s 9th exemplifies this and is performed over and over again for this reason. Leonard Bernstein conducted Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 in celebration of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Reunification of Germany. Because of the major event he replaced the text by using Freiheit (freedom) for Freude (joy), and he expressed that he felt that Beethoven would have given him the liberty to do so. A performance that is almost two decades old can be viewed on a multitude of YouTube videos (Porterfield).

Technology is a huge part of today’s culture and way of communicating. Technology has been used to create electrical instruments, computerized regenerations of the sounds of instruments, crystal clear recordings and recording software, midi, notation software, video games such as Guitar Hero, cell phone ringtones and callback tones (which play actual recordings), Ipods and other Mp3 devices, and a multitude of other advancements. Music is being played when someone is receiving and making a call, driving in his or her car, listening to his or her Ipod he or she is on the bus, at the gym or walking somewhere, and even played in infants’ cribs to lullaby them to sleep. How would many filmmakers become as successful as they are without music in their films? It is common knowledge that Britney Spears can hardly sing in tune, but who would know by listening to her recordings? Our voices, our man communication device and a part of us, in themselves are musical. Music is very much a part of our culture. It is happening almost everywhere almost all the time. Music in the classroom is essential for teaching students how to become educated citizens. It is apart of their history and daily lives, and it is important for them to know how it works and how it has developed over time to truly learn how to appreciate its impact in their culture. It is also for them to understand how the artist’s thoughts and ideas affect how the music is expressed and in many cases, why certain lyrics were chosen.

In many classrooms, music is taught through performance, theory, and history. Music history and appreciation teaches citizenship by making students aware music’s part in their culture and how it developed as well as other cultures. Also, regular classroom etiquette and discussion also gives students a sense of discipline needed to communicate clearly and confidently but to follow regulations and laws. Emphasis on participation will also teach the students that doing their part in their community is critical. Cultural awareness is essential to be an educated citizen.

It is quite easy to teach citizenship during an orchestra or band rehearsal. The ensemble itself runs as if it were a small democracy. The conductor is the main leader, but he or she does not have complete control unless everyone under him or her follows him or her and the section leaders that he or she has appointed. Everyone gives their own expression of musical ideas laid out by the composer of the sheet of music in front of every student. Students learn that if they do not practice and learn their music, they will hurt other students and their ensemble as a whole. This is very similar to the aspects of being an educated citizen. Each person that is not an educated citizen and does not do their part hurts our democracy just as a student not taking the time to learn their part hurts the ensemble. The regulations that are presented to a student are the sheet music in front of him or her. A student must be aware of his or her surroundings during the rehearsal by listening to his or her part and how it fits with the other students’ parts, by watching the conductor for how to he or she wants the music expressed, and by being aware of his or her own expression and unique sound and what way he or she can use it to benefit the sound of the ensemble. Students may not be aware of it, but an ensemble is a small democracy on its own.

Music is in our everyday life. It is a part of our advancing technological time, and it is and has always been a major part of our culture. Students do not only become more aware of their culture from learning about music, experiencing it, and making their own music, but they begin to learn social and academic disciplines necessary for becoming an educated citizen and doing their part in our democracy.