The music department will offer a new minor starting next fall.
The Hillsdale College faculty recently approved the addition of a music education minor that will supplement the current music major but focus on hands-on training instead of academic study and performance.
Professor of Music Melissa Knecht said the minor will make music majors more marketable for future employment.
“We’re trying to start them off on the right foot,” she said, “and bring them to regard teaching as a professional craft.”
She said the idea for the program has been brewing since last summer, but official discussions did not begin until January.
Part of the discussions included finding a way to align the music education minor with the college’s philosophy of teaching.
Because of this, a class on the philosophy of education will be part of the minor’s requirements.
“We would like to be as close as we can to being in sync with Hillsdale College’s philosophy of education,” Knecht said, “so we decided we wanted to work directly with them.”
This class will be added to the more skills-based classes on conducting and teaching music in the classroom, as well as the teaching apprenticeship.
The minor will be a total of 28 credit hours.
“It is going to be a little bit on the large side, but they are going to be more highly-qualified this way,” Knecht said.
It will also make students more attractive to classical charter schools, she added.
“Our department is trying to to meet the needs of our students applying specifically to charter schools looking for music teachers,” she said.
Phillip Kilgore, director of the college’s Barney Charter School Initiative, said the new minor will make music majors a much better candidate for these positions.
“Music plays a prominent role in the classical charter schools Hillsdale College helps to found,” Kilgore said. “They need accomplished musicians, vocal or instrumental, to teach music who also have a good foundation in the liberal arts.”
Schools looking for music teachers naturally seek out music majors, he said. While Hillsdale music majors may have a good grasp of the material, teaching it will be a different story.
“The music education minor will enhance a good musician’s ability to teach,” he said.
Knecht agreed and emphasized the importance of learning classroom management, curriculum development, and pacing.
“Students know enough,” she said. “But their delivery skills are not well developed enough for their students to process it correctly.”
She made clear that students will benefit from the extra training in an actual classroom setting.
“It’s an important part of developing the whole person that you can’t get at your normal classes at Hillsdale.”
