Mister Rogers and The Expression of Care

My name is Nicholas Jaworski and I'm a new contributor to this blog. However, I don't want to spend any energy in explaining who I am - since I hope that my posts will reflect my philosophies about music education.

If you've wandered over to this blog, take 6 minutes to watch the entire video below. The date is May 1, 1969 (40 years ago!) and President Nixon wants to cut public television funding in half to help fund the war in Vietnam. Enter Fred Rogers. He's been producing his television show "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" on PBS for a couple of years. His goal is to convince the stuffy and cynical members of Congress to spend $20 Million on public broadcasting. The ending is simply cinematic.



His words are simple and beautiful. Mister Rogers has something to teach all of us concerning the "inner drama of childhood" and "the neighborhood expression of care". Music educators have a unique opportunity to reach out to students in order to help them express their own inner thoughts and feelings. This responsibility can manifest itself in numerous ways. Sometimes it means that students are physically creating new works to share with the world. And other times the simple act of working hard and succeeding at something is a profound expression of a student's work ethic and potential.

Those of us who are music educators must remember that our obligations to our students greatly outweigh our personal ambitions for our ensembles and classrooms. We must hold ourselves accountable for the experiences we provide our students in order to help foster a sense of curiosity in music and the arts.

As a side note, Mister Rogers had a degree in music composition and wrote all of the music on his show. So, I'm just saying - music is awesome.