Curriculum

I have been spending a lot of time working on curriculum lately. There is not a well established curriculum here and it is sorely needed. We need scope and sequence. We need standard assessments. We need benchmarks to measure our success.

I believe community based decisions are central to any curriculum. What do you believe a high school graduate should be able to do? I have several ideas and would love to hear from you.

A high school graduate should be able to:

• Sing in tune. When the birthday cake comes out the singing should sound good.
• Have a coherent conversation about music. They should be able to go to a symphony concert and talk to the doctors, lawyers, and politicians about what they heard.
• Sing songs to their children when they are born.
• Choose appropriate music for weddings/funerals/etc...
• Dance effectively. Understand the connection between dance and music.
• Have fun. Stop worrying - get up and sing.

If this happens then I think the more music teacher specific language takes care of itself. Could we set up a curriculum that meets these goals?