We are witnessing a lot of change, destruction, and unrest in the world today from the political upheaval and revolution in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, and other parts of the middle east, to the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, to the domestic spending battles in D.C., to the changing of policies on collective bargaining in Wisconsin and Ohio as well as other states. No doubt that on every level one can witness and feel the changes happening and seemingly at a faster and faster pace. In the music world we recently witnessed the musicians strike of the Detroit Symphony as well as many other arts organizations struggle and/or fail because of the unrest and rapid change. So what are we to make of all this change and how do we survive if not thrive in it?
There is an economic theory that was put forth by a man named Joseph Schumpeter in 1942 called Creative Destruction. It basically describes how innovation and entrepreneurship destroy the value of established companies and laborers who once enjoyed a monopolistic advantage. For example Polaroid was destroyed by the arrival of digital photography. 8-tracks were made obsolete by cassette tapes, which were made obsolete by CD's, which are on their way out via mp3 players and digital downloads. Even Microsoft, once a target of Anti-trust lawsuits in the 1990's, is no longer the power player it once was because of the innovation of companies such as Google, Apple, and now Facebook.
There is no doubt that the new technologies are changing the way people teach and learn as well. As music educators we must ourselves adapt to these changes and create new, more efficient ways to teach our students to engage in creating, performing, and responding to music. As musicians we must create new ways to present to and engage our audiences. We ourselves must continue to grow and learn or else we will become obsolete. Certainly music is being consumed more than ever, but it is up to each one and all of us at the same time to create and shape the music community of tomorrow.
So I challenge you with a call to action. How can you help change and shape the music community of tomorrow? I would like to suggest that a good first step would be to jump in and learn the new technologies to boost your personal growth and learning. As music teachers, especially those of us who teach privately, are many times isolated from our peers. If we even teach in a place that has multiple teachers more than likely we all have our own schedules and very little time to interact with one another. Even classroom music teachers are usually the only or one of few music teachers in their buildings. Social media provides us with a great tool to communicate with our peers on our own time. The community feature here at ohiomtasouthwest.org is designed to give anyone with an interest in the music education community of southwest Ohio; teachers, parents, students, and others, a place to come to share their ideas, learn, and work together to improve the music education landscape of our region. Sign in, create your profile and tell everyone who you are. Create a group to start a discussion or collaborate on a project. Create events and share them with people for the activities you are involved in. Invite members you know and don't know to join the group. Invite your colleagues to join the community and do the same.
What will the music community of southwest Ohio look like 5, 10, 15 or even 20 years from now? I certainly don't know the answer but I do know the answer doesn't lie in any one of us, nor does it lie in all of us. I believe the answer lies BETWEEN all of us and the best way to access that is to collaborate with each other. Collaboration with colleagues keeps us in dialogue with each other: sharing ideas, vigorously debating important issues, and working together. Through all this dialogue we find and create solutions to the problems we face and improve our abilities to vary our approaches to match the needs of our students and also our abilities to impact more students directly and indirectly. We now have the tools so lets get busy shaping the music community of tomorrow.
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