Thinking More About the Future of Music Therapy

At some point, I am sure that this will become an occasional series, but it is keeping my brain occupied with something other than COVID-19, so this may be a theme for a bit. Please note that this is a work of fiction, something that I think may happen in our small world of music therapy at some point, but not rooted in the current reality. 

I just like exploring "what-ifs."

 "Number 2427," Persephone whispered to herself as she walked through the masses of people and the hallways towards her designated entrance.

It was orientation week, and she was trying to find her seat in the auditorium. To do that, she had to find the hall that linked to her section and row - she was number 2427, and that meant heading up about halfway up and a bit over halfway across the great building.

There were so many people. Persephone had never been in a class with more than her siblings before. This felt like a small city full of people. Some were playing instruments. Others were singing in groups. Still others looked scared and skittered around the edges of the groups to get to their designated seats. That's how Persephone felt.

After finally finding her hallway, she walked into the auditorium and gasped. It was huge. Her section was a bit to the right of center. Each desk was labelled with a number, and she followed the numbers until she found hers. Sitting down, she took out her styluses and her water bottle and watched the screen ask for her number.

2427.

Name

Persephone Clarkson

ID Number

She typed it into the desktop screen.

Signature Here.

She signed her name.

Right Index Print Here.

She pressed her right index finger onto the surface in the box indicated.

"Welcome to The Continuum of Music and Humanity. Dr. Licar will begin shortly."

Persephone tried to achieve invisibility as her peers entered the auditorium and found their own seats.

She was nervous.

Her journey to this prestigious music therapy academy had been pretty typical - music instrument and vocal performance opportunities as a young child, participation in recording sessions with others through online learning, lessons and theory coursework in college, initial degree in music and psychology, and then auditions and interviews for the four music therapy academies in the world. She had not been accepted to the academy that she had hoped for, but being accepted to one of four international programs was not a bad thing, was it?

According to her reading (yep, Persephone was one of THOSE students - one who had already read some of her texts before school had actually started), at one time there were many different universities that offered music therapy studies. Not all of the United States offered the course as a major, but there were over 70 programs where you could study. Now there were four.

Many universities had closed in the early 2030's due to the prevalence of online coursework and programs and the difficulty finding monies required for maintaining old school buildings. As this process happened, the programs that had survived consolidated to preserve resources and to employ teaching professionals. Graduate courses were the only ones that included synchronous (in real time) and in-person coursework exclusively. For a helping profession, such as music therapy, there had to be a real-time and live component to the education. After all, how could you work with people if you never actually saw people?

The current educational model seemed to promote the concept of large lectures with smaller cohorts of students in learning laboratories.

Tap, tap, tap.

She startled, not expecting the sound on the back of her chair, and turned to see what was occurring behind her.

Persephone shook her head just as the lights in the auditorium dimmed.

"My name is Dr. Licar, and welcome to The Continuum of Music and Humanity."

 The small woman stepped onto the stage as students found their seats and logged in on their carells.

"You are the class of 2050, four thousand strong. Welcome to the study of music therapy."

 

Some thoughts about university programs closing from a variety of sources - all opinions, just like mine!! 

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/30/hbs-prof-says-half-of-us-colleges-will-be-bankrupt-in-10-to-15-years.html

https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereknewton/2018/09/11/no-there-wont-be-massive-college-bankruptcies/#35ffaef0d75b

https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelhorn/2018/12/13/will-half-of-all-colleges-really-close-in-the-next-decade/#50dfaf4952e5