The following is a short interview conducted by Euractiv with music teacher Jose Matías Fernández Díaz from the Real Conservatorio Profesional de Música Julián Arcas (Almería) on the need to integrate EU concepts into the high school music curriculum.
E: Among the topics covered in the first module of the EUPress Teacher Training, which ones struck you the most?
JMFD: There is one topic in this module that, in my opinion, raises the most urgent and pressing issue, and for that reason it seems to me the most worrying and marks a big difference in terms of importance from the others: It is “The Challenges of the European Union”.
E: Can you explain why?
JMFD: The responsibility of the European Union with regard to the situation of global drift seems to me to be of vital importance at this time. I firmly believe that the challenges facing humanity today can and should be addressed primarily by the European Union, which, whether we like it or not, continues to be the center of civilization, democracy and culture, respect for human rights and the rule of law, the ordering of society, and many other achievements to which humanity has had access throughout history.
E: Is there any aspect that you would have liked to explore in more depth?
JMFD: The magnificent material in this part of Module I masterfully presents us with a wide variety of aspects that highlight the great challenges we refer to: the environment, geopolitical stabilization, terrorism, migration… but, as a music teacher, perhaps I am missing a more comprehensive reference to the potential of Europe as the cradle and inexhaustible source of culture, and to the power of culture (and specifically music) as an aspect that makes us more human, more elevated, and therefore both a pacifying and unifying element.
From a very young age, music students participate, almost without being aware of it, in this universal and “all-human” facet that music makes available to them: composers and musicians of different nationalities and languages, a reading system (musical notation) that can be understood in any country in the world, absolute equality between genders, religions and beliefs, and infinite equalizing features between like-minded people…
In our Conservatoire, we are fully aware of this, and so we teach it to our students, reinforce it with our study trips and consolidate it in these last months with our first Erasmus+ experiences.
