Orff Schmorff

One of the all-time, hall-of-fame music pedagogues is a bloke named Carl Orff. He has a music education philosophy (don't you dare call it a method) named after him. (He was also a Nazi sympathizer who stayed in Germany during WWII, but I'll let that go for now.) During the summer music teachers can spend thousands of dollars on training courses to become certified in the Orff's method philosophy. They can additional spend hundreds of dollars on books (I have lots on my shelf) detailing how a music teacher can apply Orff's method philosophy to his classes.

One such book is Play, Sing and Dance by Douglas Goodkin, a highly respected Orff pedagogue who earns thousands of dollars each year teaching training courses to well-intentioned music teachers. I am wending my way through this collection of articles (it isn't even a real book) and found some great nuggets.

• Carl Orff never actually taught children!
• The Orff philosophy of music education is not supposed to be explainable!
• But at the same time Orff teaching has plenty of processes, models, and principles.
• Carl Orff's idea of music education is an off-shoot of the Dewey/Rousseau education tree.

I had been contemplating saving up the thousands of dollars necessary to become Orff certified. Since that will result also in indoctrination of the worst kind, I'm going to pass. The money can go to that bass flute I've always wanted.