Music teachers band together to stop ‘illiterate’ students falling through gaps

Most students that Hannah O’Neill encounters each day are musically “illiterate”.

On a good day she looks at such nescience as an opportunity. A chance to right a wrong. To pick-up the slack.

But on a bad day it breaks her heart.

In a small classroom three hours’ drive from Melbourne, Ms O’Neill goes to work in the coastal city of Warrnambool.

Her classroom’s a passionate mix of music and theory, practice and play. 

For many of the secondary school students that enter her tutelage it is their first time learning music of any kind. 

This makes things difficult. 

Erin Toulmin is a classically-trained clarinetist who teaches music at another secondary school in Warrnambool. 

Her experience is largely the same. 

“It’s not a complex music education that they’ve learned, it’s very, very shallow,” she said. 

Falling on deaf ears

Music is a mandatory part of the curriculum in Australia, however there are concerns the nation’s teaching stocks are heading towards a “skills cliff” — musically speaking. 

Research by The Tony Foundation revealed the time and value dedicated to music learning within primary teaching degrees is at an all-time low.

It showed the average amount of time spent training teachers in music dropped from 17 hours in 2009 to eight by the end of 2022.

The research found only one in five teaching students ever observed a music class before having to give one themselves.

The resulting dearth of musical experience for children is something that has a tangible effect on the brain, according to neuromusical educator Dr Anita Collins.

“Music learning, particularly learning a musical instrument, is the most powerful way to set up the cognitive foundations for learning,” she said.

Source: Alberts, The Tony Foundation

Dr Collins said there was decades of research that backed up the theory that learning music at a young age helped the brain work more efficiently, and that improvement remained with you for life.

However, the way that music education is delivered at primary schools across Australia has yet to deliver on that promise, according to experts.

Nearly two in three Australian primary schools offer no classroom music, according to The Music Trust.

“In most cases there is a strong alignment between that excellent practice and socio-economic advantage,” Dr Dwyer said. 

“So we have students from poor areas who are missing out on that music education.”

A solution? 

In Warrnambool, Hannah O’Neill and Erin Toulmin were sick of seeing their students being musically left behind.

So they did something about it.

They banded together with an ensemble of local teachers to offer a music teacher school of sorts, offering free music tips and tricks to classroom teachers. 

They pass on pedagogically-backed exercises the pair hope teachers will feel empowered to use in their everyday classroom teaching. 

“Essentially, because things aren’t happening at a state government level, we feel that we need to step in and do this.

“It’s just appalling the lack of music education that is happening in this area.”

The Victorian government has been contacted for a response. 

The pair’s classes are held in Warrnambool and open to all educators, a model they would like to see picked up by the government and spread across the state.

“There was just enough of us that were fed up enough [with the state of music education] to do something.”

For Dr Collins, improving musical education in primary school-aged students is a mission worth pursuing.

She said widespread improvements in music could easily lead to generational change.

“There’s broader things here at stake than just giving what looks like, on the outside, to be an enjoyable musical experience.”