| Creativity is an important and vital aspect of music education. Solid and unambiguous backing for this idea comes from influential bodies of music educators in England and the United States, and from philosophers Whitehead and Dewey and psychologists Bruner and Piaget.;In lieu of the fact that writers of elementary music education texts seem to ignore the weighty evidence in support of the importance of creativity in education, a fundamental and basic question is briefly considered. Why is creativity ignored or indeed suppressed in education in general and in elementary music education in particular? The work concludes that one answer may be found in an understanding of the nature of the economic system upon which an educational system is based.;This study explores the extent to which current elementary music education texts are likely to encourage the development of creative potential in children. Scientific studies concerning the nature of creativity and the conditions for its nurture are presented. From these studies, a set of questions is derived, i.e. an evaluation form, which is used to assess the extent to which a representative selection of elementary music education texts support the importance of creativity in music education. This assessment of a selection of texts, which are representative of the spectrum of thought in elementary music education in England and the United States, reveals that the majority have little, if anything, to do with creativity. |
