Sister Therese Potvin: "Portrait of a Founder"
EPHATHA Feature Article, Spring 1998
"Portrait of a Founder"
by Michael Aherne
Sister Therese has always remained true to the philosophy that music is one of the most important and enriching gifts that we can develop within our children. Moreover, she believes that "all the music in the world springs from within the soul. The child is himself a living musical instrument, best expressed through song and movement."
In a recent interview with the Western Catholic Reporter, Sister Potvin explained that a child doesn't have to be "talented" or from a wealthy home to create or appreciate music. She explained that "music is for everyone and it stays with us for life." Sister Potvin's profound conviction that music is a universal gift that unites us all has evolved over several decades through her work in music education.
A native Edmontonian, Sister Potvin grew up in the midst of a large family. She attended St. Francis of Assisi School before pursuing high school and undergraduate bilingual studies at l'Academie Assomption and the University of Laval, Quebec.
She has taught kindergarten, elementary, and secondary studies throughout Ontario, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, and has spent the final 10 years of her career as a classroom teacher with Edmonton Catholic Schools.
In addition to her work as a teacher, Sister Potvin has been an important leader in establishing vehicles for the promotion of music education. In 1963, she founded l'Alliance Chorale Alberta, to support the development of French language choirs in Alberta and surrounding provinces. She herself has also directed many school and community adult and children's choirs.
Realizing the power of Zoltán Kodály's philosophy and pedagogical approach has taken Sister Potvin in some very interesting directions over the years. Sr. Potvin has learned first hand the nuances of the Kodály method through her professional development experiences in Hungary, both in Esztergom and at the Zoltán Kodály Pedagogical Institute of Music in Kecskemet. As a result of these unique and outstanding experiences, she has kept in constant contact with students and young teachers, encouraging all those she has found to be apt or interested in the field.
In 1983, Sr. Potvin co-founded the Alberta Kodály Association in conjunction with her two terms of service as a Council Member of the Kodály Society of Canada. Instrumental in assisting and promoting promising young music educators, Sister Potvin has been a prominent figure over the years at the Alberta Hungarian Cultural Society's annual Csardás Ball.
The Hungarian Cultural Society offers generous scholarships to promote Kodály music education to young Albertans. Sister Potvin has been directly involved in helping some 21 students obtain scholarships from various sources to attend programs at the Kecskemet-based Kodály Institute, where they have been able to benefit from the wisdom and guidance of some of the world's most renowned music educators.
In 1977, Sister Therese was invited by the Dean of the Faculte Saint-Jean to develop and introduce a three year, music education program - both in musicianship and pedagogy - in the French language. Sister Potvin later went on to teach at Faculte Saint-Jean from 1977 through 1991.
Always dedicated to improving the resources which teachers and students use to discover and create music, Sr. Potvin was an early pioneer in developing classroom music. Building on early work which she competed on her own while teaching at J.J. Picard school, she was commissioned in 1984 by the Language Services Branch at Alberta Education to lead the development process for Alberta's French music education curriculum.
In addition to a set of ministerial approved curriculum guides now widely available throughout Alberta, the curriculum development project also resulted in a series of music education videos as part of a pilot project with Grandin Elementary School in Edmonton. As a result of this extensive curriculum development process, it soon became apparent that appropriate pedagogical resources for teaching music in French were few and scarce.
In the late 1980s, in a collaborative arrangement between Alberta Education, Montreal-based educational publisher Guerin, and her religious order, Soeurs de l'Assomption de la Sainte Vierge, the first of a series of classroom music education resources were commissioned - Mes chansons, ma musique. These first two books, published in 1991, consisted of teacher guides and student classroom books for Grades 1 - 3.
Sister Potvin's vision was to create a series of sequential, progressive educational resources destined to permit all children, irrespective of their musical background, to read music notation just as simply as they read stories in a book. Serie Via Musica was born.
From the outset, Sister Potvin believed that a systematic and progressive approach was most effective way to introduce students to the world of music. Her particular pedagogical approach starts with the simplicity of two-note songs, progressing gradually through more complex songs, finally covering all major and minor modes. Her typically Kodalian developmental approach enables students to master the very simple language of music notation and master the literacy of music without recourse to instruments.
Recognizing the need to become more innovative and responsive to the demand of financial pressures placed on Alberta schools in the mid 1990s, the format of the next two titles which Sister Potvin authored - Tes chansons, ta musique, took on a new look. Tes chansons, ta musique C & D are titles which have been prepared primarily for Alberta's Grade 4 - 6 music education curriculum using a formatting process called Blackline Master Format.
The Blackline Master Format of Tes chansons, ta musique, enables schools to copy song materials for use in the classroom, as well as serving as a teachers' guide in one resource. With this formatting approach, teachers are able to make photocopied classroom sets and overheads of their favorite songs, dances, and rounds from the texts without fear of illegal copyright violation. This formattting approach also dramatically reduces the cost for individual schools in making valuable music education resources readily available to teachers and students.
With the 1997 release of Tes chansons, ta musique, Sister Potvin continues to develop the Serie Via Musica and is presently in the process of preparing volumes E & F. Volume E will consist of rounds and canons, and Volume F will be a collection of 2-part French songs to support choral music development. Also planned are volume G, 3-part pieces, and volume H, an introduction to instrumental accompaniment including handbells, percussion instruments and recorders.
As one of Canada's senior and most experienced French music educators, Sr. Potvin continues to receive offers to make presentations to emerging generations of music educators. She has presented on music education topics to over 110 conferences and workshops in Canada, United States, Japan, England, and Belgium over the last several decades.
Sister Potvin is undoubtably an inspiration to music educators from all linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Her life's work has bee to make a positive and lasting contribution to the welfare of society through music education. Kodály once said:
Real art is one of the most powerful forces in the rise of mankind and (s)he who renders it accessible to as many people as possible is a benefactor of society.
Sister Potvin is indeed a great benefactor to us all.
