Whether enlightenment is attainable or not is beyond debate. This is only because writing and language cannot express words completely. Words cannot express thoughts completely [this is from Master Kung, in his commentaries on the I Ching.]. The trouble is that no matter how colorful or wordy, language often falls short of the mark. Lao-tzu said, "Those who know do not speak; those who speak do not know." [Wei. Lao Tzu p. 197]
Musical composition is one attempt to express something that we cannot represent in any other way. This same kind of personal communication exists in performance. Improvisation is the heart of the musical experience. It is because of this human input, music as art moves us so. We can think of our work as enabling the musical voices of the inner child to be heard. Good music teaching, in fact all good teaching, is less about authority or knowledge and more about guidance toward personal construction of knowledge, skills, attitudes and values. Learning is better founded on the dialectic, such as used by Master Kung and Socrates. They questioned the student so that the student came to a solution for themselves. This is discovery-based. Rather, there is a sense of community exploration of an idea in which students are actively engaged and are challenged to think about solution.
"Critical thinking skills" and Higher level thinking are really subsets of the ability to think creatively. The result seems to only be the acquisition of facts. Of course, this is nonsense, for without the understanding about music that comes from thinking in sound while engaged in creating it, all is lost. Constantly insisting that young composers work with strict limits of timbrel, tonal and rhythmic materials so that they will have safe sounding music is malpractice. How do we begin to encourage the inner voice, to encourage higher levels of thinking and to celebrate real creativeness more effectively? The article suggested that these be tried. Begin by consciously not providing the full structure of a music experience, but only its outlines. In other words, create a scaffold as if one were creating the means to build a building. If one is encouraging melodic composition, provide outlines of melodic and rhythmic motion and have children fill in the details. If one is teaching complex forms, provide the superstructure and purposely leave holes. (See Bloom's Taxonomy for clues to structure questions.)
I remember a story. A man had asked a great composer to teach him how to compose. The composer suggested they start at the beginning. The man was infuriated. He did not know why he couldn't start like Mozart? "Of course Mozart never had to ask how, did he?"