Mwic in educationMy students do a good deal of homework. It gets them into practice
for the first essay of the examination and thus leads them to consider
all aspects of their future profession. Their homework also enables me
to know them better, to talk things over with them and to tell them
what they do not know. The practice essays done as homework are
hardly popular but nevertheless, when at the end of the year I asked
a class to suggest a subject for an essay, and then deal with it, a number
of them asked whether they could not write on several subjects.
All my pupils have at their disposal a vast collection of songs, choral
pieces and books on sol-fa, for my library contains everything available
in French editions. If it were easier to get books published in foreign
countries (though it seems odd to speak of foreigners in the assembly
where, although we have come from all over the world, we feel so close
to one another ; but still customs and currency regulations do count),
I would have books from all your countries and my pupils could
browse among them at will.
Another third-year task is the methodical assembly by students of
comprehensive repertories of music for use in teaching, with lists of
songs and choruses, selected by themselves from my collection, for
every stage of secondary schooling. Not only are these lists invaluable
to them in their early years as teachers but the task of preparing them,
of grading the items according to their difficulty and introducing the
spice of variety is in itself highly beneficial and drives home the signi-
ficant principles on which their professional conscience will be based:
that ‘anything’ will not do; that they must keep faith with the children;
and that no trouble must be too great where the children are concerned.
We have so little time for music teaching (one hour per week) that even
the smallest detail is important. It is much easier to do harm than to do
good and for us the basis of all education is respect for the child.
I have not the time to enlarge upon our method, but I think you
have understood what I mean.
Earlier, I mentioned that there were some exceptions to the rule that
music is not taught by specialists below the level of secondary educa-
tion. The exceptions are the following:
- For some years past music has been taught in the training colleges
for primary-school teachers by specialists recruited from among our
students. This makes it necessary to train the pupils to teach music
from the kindergarten stage upwards, so that they can pass the
technique on to prospective primary-school teachers. - In Paris and the Department of the Seine music teaching in all
communal schools is in the hands of specialist teachers recruited