While I Still Have Feelings - Jonathan Hall

Powerful--the rapture of a content, defined or immovable heart. There is a feeling of sincere beauty that has the power to control people in a way that no other article of this world can—manipulate.  Perhaps, this is the accurate way of describing the profound effects that music has on its charges.  The ability of music to contact the essence of our character and evoke responses to our emotions is for me, the most important quality of this soul-cleansing refuge. Aside from the statistics and trends of music’s impact on society, there are elemental justifications that are evident at the most preliminary existence of music. All emotions are rather aloof in their situational (felt) presence of one another, albeit fixed in the primary pillars of feelings in an individual—all of which are touched by music.  Music is embedded in the fabrics of existence; as Confucius eloquently states, “music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without,” we begin to see how it impacts our mind, soul and spirit. I feel a passionate mission to educate my students to take note of the impact of this fundamental entity and understand how they inevitably succumb to its control--manipulate.

In light of the philosophical foundation stated above, an individual’s comprehension and positive reception of music stems from listening, composing, performing and discussing. Providing experiences that require students to engage in such activities allows them to sense, test, measure, reflect upon and develop an idea of what they are engaged in on their own. Good teaching, then, aims to incorporate all four of these activities in tandem through out a student’s voyage of the educational system.  

Education, in the most common sense, works best when attention is given to the whole child, who is taken seriously. Concentration on helping children to become not only good learners, but also good people, dwells from certain aspects of aesthetic proficiencies. Learning isn’t just relegated to isolated happenings of an individual--separate selves distant from other existing capacities. A caring community provides an environment where children learn with and from one another; a place where moral and academic learning occur. Interdependence cohabits a learning atmosphere as much as independence subsists as the medium in which and an individual gains knowledge or ascertains concepts. Characteristics of this learning method emphasize collaborative problem-solving, while spotlighting underlying motives, values and reasons as a substitute of focusing on behaviors. The rationale of this particular disposition is grounded in the idea that emotional and intellectual powers are cultivated by a system that promotes intrinsic motivation, as to prolong the effects of learning in relation to a student’s interests and desires. Put differently, the conventional practices and educational policies surrounding a traditional system inhibit many of the creative and imaginative abilities of individuals—while sacrificing deep and extended understanding, due to the overwhelming weight of standardization, where the cue is not taken from the student. Achievement and academic success is merely confused with “rigor.”

A society that houses compassionate, empathetic and devoted people will flourish. Feelings for one’s self and others can be brought to light through music while eradicating or impeding the perpetuation of a kind of numbness that has settled into this world—a numbness that has overtaken the expressive and heartfelt nature of humanity. The desire to help salvage what is left of an kindhearted civilization, is why I do what I do—doing so of course, while I still have feelings.