ABSTRACT
A philosophy should serve as a source of insight into the total music program and should assist music teachers in determining what the musical enterprise is all about, what it is trying to accomplish and how it should operate. A definitive philosophy is useful, even essential, for an operation as important and complex as music education because concepts, theory and practice rely on one another. Music educators have begun to realize that systematic philosophy is one of the most practical things a teacher can have. The problem of developing a philosophy of music education necessarily involves structuring a theory on the meaning of music, the valuation of music and the role of music in human living. Reliance on instrumental values has often taken the focus of music teachers' efforts away from musical achievement, and provided cover for minimal musical learning and low musical standards.
