Satis N. Coleman (1878–1961) was an influential progressive

music educator Music education is a field of practice in which educators are trained for careers as elementary or secondary music teachers, school or music conservatory ensemble directors. Music education is also a research area in which scholars do original ...

. In her 2010 induction in the

National Association for Music Education The National Association for Music Education (NAfME) is an organization of American music educators dedicated to advancing and preserving music education as part of the core curriculum of schools in the United States. Founded in 1907 as the Mu ...

(NAfME) Hall of Fame, it was written, “She promoted music education for its ability to lead children to relate music to other subjects, such as history, geography, and the study of natural resources.” She taught in rural Texas, Washington D.C. and in New York City at

Teachers College, Columbia University Teachers College, Columbia University (TC), is the graduate school of education, health, and psychology of Columbia University, a private research university in New York City. Founded in 1887, it has served as one of the official faculties and ...

(where she earned her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology) and the Lincoln Lab School; and she published 33 books with major publishers. Because of the environmental element of her music education philosophy, her work was a historical precedent for eco-literate music pedagogy, and may have been the first non-jazz improvisation approach. Her Creative Music for Children was very influential, incorporating

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of be ...

improvisation Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of impr ...

, instrument construction, and alternative notation. She may have been the main proponent of

Recapitulation Theory The theory of recapitulation, also called the biogenetic law or embryological parallelism—often expressed using Ernst Haeckel's phrase "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny"—is a historical hypothesis that the development of the embryo of an a ...

in music education, and her philosophy had a distinctively spiritual aspect, which can be seen as connected to instrument making as a spiritual practice."Instrument-making As Music-making," 2013, International Journal of Music Education. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0255761413486858

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Coleman, Satis 1878 births 1961 deaths American music educators American music historians Teachers College, Columbia University alumni Teachers College, Columbia University faculty Women music educators