A Study On Li Shutong’s Thought And Practice Of The School Songs Curriculum Reform

There are two fundamental problems in the field of music curriculum theory and practice that must be faced. One is how to avoid the specialization and utilitarianism of the music curriculum but to highlight the aesthetic of music education, the other is how to fuse the excellent Chinese traditional culture with the music curriculum and instruction. In this paper, studying the thought and practice of Li Shutong’s school songs curriculum reform is precisely in order to seek to enlightment of resolving the fundamental music curriculum problems from the predecessors, in the meantime this study hopes to deepen the study of local curriculum thought that already studied in the curriculum academia and also provide historical reference for the development of curriculum theory centered the local traditional culture.The core issue of this paper is how Li had conducted the school songs curriculum reform on the basis of the mainstream curriculum paradigm represented by the "Militarism Education" themed school songs curriculum which had been created by Shen Xingong and had opened up a music curriculum and instruction road with profound national cultural taste and beautiful mood. First of all, it reviewed the formation process and the characteristic of the school songs mainstream curriculum paradigm represented by Shen’s school songs before Li’s reform and the reform difficulties resulted by them. Next, the paper reveals the shift to children’s aesthetic of Li’s school songs curriculum reform thought from the curriculum thought and practice by analyzing and comparing Li’s school songs. Finally, the paper summarize the enlightment of solving the current music curriculum problem get from Li’s school songs curriculum reform with the current curriculum situation.As it shown in this paper, Li hadn’t simply followed the "Westernized" and "Politicized" mainstream curriculum paradigm in the era that school songs formed, but based on his own unique cultural background and the horizon that tranfix China and the western to explore a music curriculum and instruction road with profound traditional cultural taste and beautiful mood. He created the school songs curriculum that changed the features that the school songs curriculum viewed as political indoctrination and propaganda tool which themed by the "Militarism Education", reflecting the advanced aesthetic education thought, which made the development of school music programs in Modern China make a significant breakthroughs, the school songs truly become the course that reflect the musical aesthetic. Li’s exploration of school songs curriculum reform has not only contributed to the promotion of the excellent traditional culture in the modern western-centred China, but also provided an important insight of the improvement of the current theoretical and practical aspects of the music curriculum.