New Music Education > Participatory Partnerships > Contemporary Approach > Modern Methodology > Contemporary Music > Technology In The Classroom > Turnkey Technology Package > Why It Works > Benefits of Music Education > Benefits of New Music Education

"Empowering children to participate in the creative process."

-Robert McBride, Performance Today, National Public Radio

… because it taps into the students’ own musical passions.

Imagine that the majority of students had a passion for calculus, perpetually listening to recordings of its most popular theorems, memorizing them, downloading them from the internet, watching them on "CTV,” and listening to them on the radio, in movies, in games – everywhere. Except in school. In school they are taught rudimentary algebra, with barely a link to their beloved high-level calculus. Consequently, their in-school performance scarcely reflects their true mathematical prowess.

Substituting music for math makes the scenario true, and no less absurd. Students have remarkable passion for and fluency in the music of the past several decades, as anyone who has ever observed a kid inhale a CD moments after it is released may have observed. And yet, it is virtually nonexistent in school, despite its enormous pedagogical potential.

Incorporating the music of the day into the classroom (as successful systems of the past have done in their time and place) taps into the students' passion and fluency. It enables them to work on more challenging and rewarding material, accelerates learning fundamentals, and opens them up to a world of less-familiar styles through common links.

… because striving for a desired goal boosts achievement.

A desired goal propels students along the path to its realization. As they work towards a high-profile performance or recording, students are both challenged and motivated to increase the level at which they perform. Achieving an ambitious goal, and basking in the exhilaration of success, the satisfaction of mastery, and the pride of positive feedback, emphasizes the value – and pleasure – of hard work well done. Achieving a goal, students gain a visceral sense of their own potential.

… because collaboration raises the bar.

Professional collaborators provide the summits to which the students may aspire. With the goal of a professional-level symphonic performance, or a professional-level audio recording, the students, themselves, become more "professional" as they progress towards the culmlinating event. The collaboration makes the goal possible, and the students elevate their performance in order to achieve it.

… because it's fun.

Including music that students love, tools that they embrace, and goals that they desire, makes learning a joy, and more of it can take place. Furthermore, the joy spreads to the students’ whole experience in, and attachement to, school. When going to school is a joy, overall performance soars.