Musicology and Music Education

I am currently working on an independent study where I am examining the gender roles of the characters in Francesca Caccini’s opera, La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola. As a part of my project, I am reading many articles and books on feminist music theory and feminist musicology. The musicology and music theory books address the same issues that we have been discussing in class and what was discussed at the Teacher’s College conference. This caused me to rethink Roberta Lamb’s statement, where she encouraged music teachers and musicologists to come together. I find it strange that the ideas are so similar, yet the two fields rarely interact with each other. This poses the question; what should the connection between musicology and music education be?

Standards for Severely Disabled Students

Last Monday, as part of Music in Special Education, I had to teach a four mentally retarded and severely disabled students at West Windsor Plainsboro High School North. I brought a song to teach the students, which I found in a fifth grade Silver Burdette book. After about thirty minutes of teaching the song, my students could barely sing it on their own. This caused me to question my expectations of the students. These students are severely disabled. However, should I lower my standards and not expect them to be able to sing the song? Maybe I shouldn’t have been teaching them the song at all. How do I assess students that are severely disabled? What should my standards be?

Music Technology

Yesterday I went to the TI:ME conference (Techology Institute for Music Education) where I saw many examples of how to incorporate music technology in the classroom. I think that there are many positives for incorporating music technology because students today are very technologically savvy (much more than I am) and computers are in "their world." However, I wonder to what extent technology can be utilized in the classroom without becoming detrimental. For instance, are we doing a disservice to students if we put more emphasis on technology and less emphasis on singing together in class or playing "traditional" classroom instruments, even though the students may not enjoy these activities as much? Further, can music learning happen through programs such as "Groovy Music," which looks to me like a video game?

Music Teachers and Performance

It always bothered me that during my undergraduate studies, I felt like a second class citizen as a music education major. Although I did have a double major with voice performance, it was as if I had a stamp on my forehead that said "I'm only a teacher. I'm not important." I had peformance major friends of mine say to me,"so you're giving up performance? Oh..." (As if I had given up ten million dollars.) The overall attitude among performance majors was that taking on the music ed major was a sign of failure, or worse, lack of musical ability. In addition, the faculty of the school often facilitated this attitude; for instance, at BU, music education majors only got 1/2 hour lessons during their junior and senior years, because it was evidently less important for music education majors to continue improving their instruments. What is it about choosing a "music education" degree that it is seen as a cop-out? Does this fear of feeling like a failure keep some potentially good music teachers from becoming music teachers? Further, why do the music education faculty members attempt to put a stop to this?

Now that I am a teaching "professional," some of my students are beginning to take private voice lessons. I know the parents of these students, and wonder why they did not ask my advice on whether or not or from whom their children should take lessons. Further, why didn't any of them ask if I could give their children lessons? Is it because they don't think I'm able to teach voice because I'm not a performer, first and foremost? Has this attitude of "she's just a music teacher--not a real musician" become mainstream?

Music in Special Education stuff

Our Music in Special Education class has to do five observations/teaching of small groups at West Windsor-Plainsboro North High School. There are about 20-25 students in the classroom at any given time. The teacher and the aides are there, as well as our own teacher and most of the students in our class. The students' disabilities range from very mild and almost undetectable to severe mental retardation, Down's Syndrome, and speech impediments.

I'm not sure if many other students feel this way, but I feel like being required to teach these students in small groups, sometimes with only one Westminster student to a group of five students, is sort of like baptism by fire. Last Monday was the first of these observations, and even then, we were expected to be able to help these students with the activity they were doing. I just feel really unprepared to teach students with such severe disabilities when we have barely finished learning about the classifications of disabilities.

Today, one of the groups had a problem with a student pushing another student off her chair. I felt really bad for the Westminster students in that group, because they had no idea what to do when these students were becoming violent. As students, we have no access to these special needs students' IEP's and don't know if any of these students have a tendency toward violent behaviors or if a particular action or word will trigger a negative reaction from the student.

It really puts a damper on what we can take away from this class. I want to talk to my teacher about it, but I'm not sure how to bring it up. It's not an issue, for me at least, of being comfortable with a few special needs learners, but being thrust into a classroom of 20 students who are, for the most part, severely disabled is scary. And on top of that, there was no period of observation where we could just watch and become acclimated to the students and their behaviors.

I'm sorry, I'm not trying to complain, but I'm really frustrated about this. What would you do? Should I try to explain my trepidation with the teacher, or just suck it up and deal for three more weeks?

Religion/Culture Blind Teaching...

So, I had my interview for student teaching this past week at a school about an hour south of here. It was great, and the teacher who I will be working with and I generally agreed on most things...and then we started talking about the winter concert. He told me that they no longer sing ANY holiday music at all at their concert. Now, I agree that the repertoire should not be of any one ethnic or religious background but isn't taking out ALL reference to differences going too far too? Last week we talked about "Color blind teaching" and how treating everyone the same isn't truly treating everyone the same. Shouldn't we embrace the differences in our classroom? Shouldn't we sing both religious and non religous music from all backgrounds? And granted, I know Chanukah is NOT one of Judaism's significant holidays, but in that case, might we consider having a Rosh Hashanah concert at that time of the year? I somehow feel that EMBRACING all backgrounds is more politically correct than ignoring them, and give students a much better sense and appreciation of self and others...

Thoughts....

Symphonic choir had a concert on Friday. For this coming week, the singers who are performing with the New York Philharmonic begin rehearsal on Monday. For the singers who will be working with Dr. Megill, we have the week off from rehearsal and begin next week.

Now, I love the idea of having a week off from any class. However, something is nagging me. I could be taking this the wrong way, but I feel like by having different rehearsal schedules for the two choirs, we are sending a message that one is more important than the other. For the Messiah choir, I feel we are sending the message that "These singers are singing a more important concert and therefore must have extra rehearsal time so they sound perfect."

Now, as a musician, I realize that Messiah is ridiculously long, and that this is probably the reason that they have an extra week of rehearsal. However, shouldn't the singers in the Vaughn Williams choir be equally as prepared for their concert, whether or not we sing in a smaller venue?

I'm not going to dance around the issue: I wanted to sing Messiah. I didn't get chosen. I was upset, but got over it. However, what bothers me is that those singers who weren't "right" for Messiah are being held to a different standard than the singers who will sing in NY. We are all in the same choir. We should all be held to the same standards.

What do you think?

Traditional Notation: Friend or Foe?

My colleague is currently studying at Teachers College Columbia University, and in his class they have been exploring the use of non-traditional notation (a la John Cage) in the music classroom. Is this the wave of the future in music education: having students read notation that they may not be able to interpret in the way the composer intended, and/or creating notation that others may not be able to interpret? (Is the point that we shouldn't be bound by what the composer intended?) Is this type of openness better than learning traditional notation? Would we be doing a disservice to students by not engaging with and learning traditional notation in our music classes? I think it would be ideal to incorporate all kinds of notation in music class, but with time constraints, is that possible?

So, I had my interview for student teaching this past week at a school about an hour south of here. It was great, and the teacher who I will be working with and I generally agreed on most things...and then we started talking about the winter concert. He told me that they no longer sing ANY holiday music at all at their concert. Now, I agree that the repertoire should not be of any one ethnic or religious background but isn't taking out ALL reference to differences going too far too? Last week we talked about "Color blind teaching" and how treating everyone the same isn't truly treating everyone the same. Shouldn't we embrace the differences in our classroom? Shouldn't we sing both religious and non religous music from all backgrounds? And granted, I know Chanukah is NOT one of Judaism's significant holidays, but in that case, might we consider having a Rosh Hashanah concert at that time of the year? I somehow feel that EMBRACING all backgrounds is more politically correct than ignoring them, and give students a much better sense and appreciation of self and others...

Musical Marketing

So, I’m sitting and thinking about my reflection paper (writing, thinking, writing, thinking, glancing at the Rutgers vs. Pittsburgh game), and this commercial comes on the screen. There is a man in black leather pants, black leather boots, no shirt, a black leather vest, a black top hat, with tattoos and an abundant amount of jewelry playing this beautiful and sleek electric guitar. There are six beautiful black car in the background stacked in threes on shelves to look like speakers. The doors of the cars are wide open, for some reason, and the man is screaming away on the guitar, riffing and improvising quite impressively. After his cadence, the man’s voice (you know, “the man,” the same man that speaks in every commercial) appears and gives the sales pitch.

I have Googled the commercial, and found this from advertising.about.com:

V-dubs Rock will run until December 31, 2006, giving anyone who buys or leases a new Rabbit, GTI, Beetle, Beetle convertible or Jetta a custom First Act GarageMaster guitar. What's so special about getting a guitar? You can actually plug it into your VW and play it through the car's stereo (http://advertising.about.com/b/a/256601.htm).

So, what is this stigma related to getting a free guitar when purchasing a guitar, especially a guitar that plugs directly into the car’s stereo? (By the way, the guitarist is Slash, a former Guns N’ Roses guitarist.) Knowing this, who was this commercial for? Men? Women? Whites? African-Americans? Hispanics? Latinos? Asians? Cripple? Fat? Blind? Deaf?

I know this isn’t a sociology class, per se (well, is it?!?), but this issue goes further in my mind.

It brings to mind two incredibly important questions regarding music education:

1) To whom are we marketing music?

2) Why?

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[Oh, and if you're interested, here's some more information and a picture of the guitar: http://www.vwvortex.com/artman/publish/volkswagen_news/printer_1842.shtml. Go buy that car, if it was marketed to YOU]

Imposition of the masses?

As a choral conductor, I constantly find myself struggling with the concept of power in an ensemble rehearsal.

At times, I feel like Adolf giving charge to “his” troops, rallying “the people” to back his ideas. It didn’t matter what their ideas were, because his were the only important ones. He was a dictator and a tyrant. He told people what and how to think.

This is quite common in an ensemble rehearsal. The ensemble leader, director, or whatever one is called, imposes her or his ideas on the ensemble with the defense that it is for the sake of time. Besides, the leader is meant to be the most “learned” in the group, teaching the group what to understand in the music and how to understand it.

Other times, I feel like a basketball coach, motivating players to do their best. Ball players constantly improvise upon their own ideas in order to help each other reach a common goal. The coach helps train the athletes to become the most capable athletes possible. Once this job is done, the coach becomes more of a manager, giving suggestions from the sidelines (although some coaches are more insistent than others).

So, which conductor am I: Adolf or coach/trainer? Is either acceptable? This is something that I struggle with every day (and, believe me… it is DEFINITELY conscious every day). Any thoughts?

My Qualifications as a Pop Musician

In Ch. 2 of Democracy and Music Education, Paul Woodford states, “Even when popular music instruction is included in school curricula, it is apt to be based on principles “abstracted” from the western musical and pedagogical canon” (2005, p. 25). I do believe in teaching popular music in the classroom, however, as a classical musician, I do not feel that I am highly qualified to do so. I am not a “pop” singer and realize that my students have much more knowledge about popular music than I do. Therefore, the only way I can bring popular music into my classroom is through a connection to classical music. I believe that the music classroom should be a dialogue between the students and the teacher. I want to encourage the students to bring me their music, and in return I will teach them mine. Classical music is as important in the music classroom as popular music, and it can just as easily be used to teach social justice. I believe that teachers have to be careful about teaching popular music. The students may know more than you do.

Marching Band and Social Justice

In Ch. 2 of Democracy and Music Education, Paul Woodford states, “Much the same criticism applies to musical participation in highly commercialized spectacles like sporting events or in certain kinds of religious services or political rallies when leaders, musicians, or teachers resort to bombast and spectacle to distract, overwhelm, or entertain rather than to elucidate and educate” (2005, p. 29). This particular quote made me very angry. The first thing that came to my mind when Woodford mentioned sporting events was marching band. Marching band was one of the most meaningful experiences I had in my high school music program. It is true that marching band often does sacrifice the music aspect of its art for the visual aspect; however, an excellent marching band cares about both visual accuracy and musical accuracy. I believe that marching band is extremely important because it links the music to the body. There are very few other art forms that connect visual accuracy and musical accuracy. However, it is next to impossible to teach social justice through marching band. The primary goal of the marching band is to entertain the spectators at a football game. Sporting events are created for entertainment value only. The marching band is part of that entertainment. I do not believe there is anything wrong with that. We often talk about authentic music making. Professionals who make music often do so for purely entertainment value. Therefore, teaching music to entertain others is part of authentic music making. Genres, like marching band, do have the capability to teach students music and improve their skills, however, its overall goal is not educate the public, it is to entertain them. I think that we discuss social justice so often that we do not realize that there are other important goals in the music classroom. Authentic music making is one of them.

Morals and the Status Quo

In Cathy Benedict’s article, she states, “We need to step back and check whether our assumptions about students---differences in their perceptions of discipline and of structure, differences between their sense of order and our own---stem from our particular dominant status quo experience.” I believe that this statement brings up the question of morals. Each of us was raised in a different experience with different morals and modes of proper behavior. These experiences could have to do with our religious beliefs, culture, or location of childhood. People with similar upbringings tend to have different morals in their later years. Benedict states that we must be aware of our students’ different morals and proper behaviors. However, this is extremely difficult. Because 90% of teachers are white, those teachers were raised with similar morals. Therefore, the white middle class moral system is taught in the classroom. I do not believe that teachers are trying to retain the status quo. The issue of schools repeating the dominant power structure could be due to the teachers’ individual morals.

Trapped...

I feel trapped. I am currently taking the "Assessing Music Learning" course online. I have to admit, I completely despise this class. Not because I do not think assessment is important, because I definitely do. I dislike this class so much because it is only offered online, and I feel as if I am not learning anything at all.

The online forum may be great for some, but not for all. Not only is it a difficult class because it is online, but it is also the easiest class to forget about. At least, for me it is. Because I do not have a physical place to go for the class, I forget about it constantly.

This past spring, several students tried to convince the administration to offer the class as a summer class. I think this would be much easier to do than many of the other classes, since students do not have to be on campus to take it. It would be so much easier to remember Assessment when I was not taking 17 other credits. Either the administration or the Music Education department decided that Assessment would not be offered over the summer, and that really upsets me. It would be a great way for students who don't necessarily live in NJ to get a required class out of the way without having to worry about housing or paying for a dorm room for part of the summer.

Why did the administration or the Music Ed department opt not to run this class over the summer? If anyone knows, I'd love to hear the reasoning. It may help me to understand why the class is formatted the way it is currently run.

I'm scared.

In responding to Carrie’s post, I had a few ethical problems that I had recently battled with.

Last night was my graduate choral conducting recital (I know… there are enough problems with that, never mind anything else). For this recital, I chose repertoire that had touched my life in some way; each happened to be considered a “masterwork” in its own right (whatever that means). As time went on, I realized that each piece was written by a deceased, white male, with the exception of the final selection, which was written by a very much alive white male (me). There was one piece on my original recital program that was written by an African-American male, but this piece was turned down by two of the three professors who helped me choose my repertoire. The two professors used the excuse that “It’s a fine piece of music, but it’s just not as good as the others… besides, this is your graduate conducting recital. That piece surely isn’t at a graduate level.” I must say, this piece actually meant more to me than any other piece on the program, including my own.

The more I thought about it, the angrier at myself I became. “I allowed this to happen,” I thought. “I allowed myself to fall into this trap.” Two things (well a billion, but I only have enough concentration right now to write about two) come out of this experience for me.

1) Why did I originally choose music almost exclusively written by white men? It wasn’t intentional, but is it ever (or always)? Why is this ingrained into my psyche?
2) Why did I give in to the hegemonic practices of the school? I feel that I am a strong advocate against hegemonic practices. This really bothers me because if I give in, how many others give in without being conscious of it?

I’m scared.

Hegemonic Practices in the University

So many people are commenting on the education setting in which se are every day (the University/Collegiate setting), so I thought I’d add some of my own questions.

Who has the power in an institution of higher learning? In reality, it seems if the professors run our lives. They tell us what to do, how to do it, and if it’s not done their way, it’s wrong. In our music school world, things are even more “touchy.” If there is bad blood between professor and student, a professor can often make it difficult for the student to both receive his or her degree, as well as blackball them from finding certain jobs.

How much hegemony is there is our world?
How much do we have to give in?
What happens when we speak up? Dare we?

Boychoirs and Discrimination

With all the recent talk about gender in our society, I have become more aware of discrimination. In my choir training for young singers class, I have been introduced to the world of children's choirs and before coming to college, I had no idea that there were choirs just for boys, and sometimes even just boys and men. Something about the whole concept of a "boychoir" and especially an all-male choir (where boys sing SA and men TB) strikes me as very strange. I of course understand the history of choirs in the church, etc., but is there really a need for all-male choirs today? If so, what is a woman's role in choral music, if any? Do boychoirs discriminate against young girls by not offering equal opportunities to grow as a musician to both genders?

Thoughts on "effective" teaching at Westminster

Today the Symphonic Choir sang at the Princeton High School's dedication ceremony for the new performance space. My experience singing with the choir today made me think about 'effective' teaching at Westminster. I sing in the Soprano II section. Throughout the whole concert, I noticed that two of the singers that stand behind me not only continue to make the same mistakes every day at rehearsal (and therefore at the concert), but also were singing with such an uncontrolled vibrato that they weren't blending. Not to mention that my left ear was ringing by the end of the concert.

I am sure that these singers' respective voice teachers have probably either talked about the difference between choral singing and solo singing, or at least tried to work on an even vibrato for these singers to use for particular time periods. My question is why they, along with the entire choir, don't bring it into choir rehearsals and performances? Similarly, we all learn to sight read at Westminster. Yet when we read new music it's as if we have never been asked to sight read before and 60 % of the choir kind of mouths the words. Finally, no matter how good or bad a student is at sight reading, after repeated practice, there should be no reason to continuously make the same mistakes.

I guess I am just realizing that there is a huge opportunity on our own campus for cross-curricular teaching, and I'd love to see it implemented. If the students cannot see the similarities between sight reading for theory lab and sight reading a piece of music for choir, it is the job of the educators to help them see it. I also think that maybe it is my job as a member of the choir, working for the common goal of a beautiful performance and positive experience. Now, how do I do my part without seeming like a jerk? I'd love your input. I was really frustrated after today's performance, because I know that everyone in that choir is a talented musician and that people are just not giving their all.

Full of Fear

Today I taught a lesson that may seem controversial. It was a lesson I saw at the conference last weekend. I played "Nuestro himno" (Our Anthem)--a song in Spanish to the tune of the Star-Spangled Banner with new Spanish words-- written for the recent immigration protests. I asked the students many questions such as, how does this song show patriotism, and is it okay to change the song in this way, etc. We ended up talking about the issue of immigration for most of the period. I felt pretty good about it afterwards, because the students were really engaging with the material. Now, I am terribly afraid that because of the discussion we had in class, parents are going to complain, because they might feel it was an inappropriate topic to discuss with 5th graders. Can I lose my job over this? Is it worth it? I am full of fear, which is so wrong, because I feel like the students were really connecting to the music, understanding it in a deeper, more meaningful way. However, it is very obvious at my school, especially in the "basic" classes, that the students are not encouraged to think and question and engage with real issues.

This Saturday

I know... unorthodox post, but I think it's important.

COME TO MY GRADUATE CONDUCTING RECITAL!

This Saturday night!!!

October 14, 2006
8:30pm in Bristol Chapel

I will premiere one of my own pieces! Great music, good times! I would love to see you all there!

Walk Like a Man

In her article, Discords: Feminist Pedagogy in Music Education, Roberta Lamb states, “There is disbelief in woman as conductor, such that an expectation that I will have to prove myself through performance (walk like a man) is always (already) just beneath the surface of classroom actuality” (1996, p. 128). In this quote, the phrase “walk like a man” really hits me. We have often discussed the idea that a black person who succeeds in our society has to adhere to white culture. Inherently, the black person has to become “white” to be successful. If the black person holds on to their cultural identity, the person will fail. This quote has made me consider this concept in a different light. I am a white woman; however, I was always aware of the privilege that male peers of mine received over me. Because of this privilege, a large majority of my life I tried to become “male”. I began rejecting female things, such as make-up and the color pink. I also refused to show emotion in public. I punished myself when I would cry, because men don’t cry. I essentially wanted to hide the fact that I was a woman because women do not succeed. I believe this ties into Elizabeth Gould’s presentation at the conference about how gay teachers need to teach in drag. Why is it that everyone that is not a heterosexual white male has to change who they are to succeed in society? How can we as teachers stop this phenomena?

Confused...

I was glad to have gotten to tell everyone about the experience I had at my faculty meeting on Monday. After the meeting, I was feeling as if what I do at the school where I work is pointless because the students are "privileged" in so many ways. What could I possibly do for these students that would really make a difference in their lives? And is there something bigger that I should be doing? I was beginning to think that by teaching in the school where I teach that I am taking the easy way out; that I am too fearful of the unknown to teach in an inner-city district, and letting that fear hold me back. However, as I continue to reflect and challenge my own thoughts, I wonder if I can do something worthwhile at my job by bringing in these social subjects into my music classroom. I would love to hear your thoughts.

Education for the Greater Good

In the preface to Woodford's Democracy in Music Education, he states that "Dewey's larger social and educational purpose and vision [is that] education ought to prepare students to participate in democratic society and thereby contribute to the common good" (Woodford x). This quote reminded me of the conversation we had last week in class about whether a student in choir should have to sing a certain voice part because it is for the greater good of the choir. I believe that this quote makes a reasonable argument for society and education - that rather than always doing what is in the individual's best interest, it is often times more beneficial to do what is best for the whole group or community.

Questioning the Practical Nature of CP (yet again)

At the conference last weekend, Carol Richardson's paper on social justice introduced many ideas that are very similar to what we are taught in our critical pedagogy classes at Westminster. While most of her ideas made sense to me, I am having a difficult time seeing how this particular quote could be put into practice: "Only ask students questions when you do not know the answer and can learn something new from the students' answers." While this (and many other ideas at the conference) sound great in theory, I do not see how a teacher could implement it into a classroom. Yes, the students come to the class with knowledge and the teacher should understand that, but how can a teacher give students skills without actually giving some new knowledge?

Fear and Education

Understandably, I know that many students as well as teachers are fearful of the classroom. A teacher is fearful of how effective they are to their students, as well as the fear that they are indeed teaching something of value. The students, on the other hand, are scared of what the teacher thinks of them and of learning.
I think it's sad that everyone is so fearful of gaining knowledge. The fact is, is that society indeed has many things that are a bit scary. Though I know a few people posted about this already, I'm sure some of us still think back to all the shootings and violence that happened last week. I am not necessarily scared as to what my fate will be, but indeed scared of what society has become. What are we turning into, and what are we teaching in both the homes and schools that makes people think that what they are doing is ok?

Social Justice and Personal Safety

On Saturday, at the Teacher’s College conference during the lunch break, two of my colleagues and I (also members of this class) decided to take a walk around the city. We wanted to explore and see where we might eat lunch on Sunday. While walking, one of my colleagues began urging us to go back. Oblivious as I sometimes am, I simply told her not to worry, we still have twenty minutes. She continued to urge us to go back, obviously feeling uncomfortable. Then, she quietly mentioned the fact that Harlem is only three blocks from Teacher’s College. I realized that the atmosphere I was in was not one I was used to. We quickly turned around and walked back to the conference.

After this experience, my other colleague mentioned that she noticed the street “getting darker”, referring to the skin color of the people around us. There we were, three young white girls, dressed in expensive dress clothes, surrounded by underprivileged “minorities”. I find it extremely ironic that this situation happened in the context of a conference on social justice. My colleagues and I were obviously practicing racism. However, I believe that that racism was stemmed from fear for our own personal safety. At the conference, the idea of underprivileged schools receiving less qualified teachers was discussed. However, maybe the reason the underprivileged schools do not receive the more qualified teachers is the teacher’s fear of their own personal safety. I believe strongly in social justice. However, I do not want to teach in a neighborhood where I do not feel safe walking to my car at night. How do we combat racism when the fight threatens our safety? I’d like to know your thoughts.

Brain....fried....

After more than 24 hours of lectures with time to only sleep, eat, and travel to and from the conference, I can honestly state that my brain is, indeed, fried.

However, I gained so much from this experience. I'd like to just put up a few of the quotes/thoughts that I wrote down and see what you think. (Some of these are not exact because I couldn't write as fast as many of the presenters talked. If you have correct versions of any quotes I get wrong, let me know and I'll change them.)

"Injustice is more the 'norm' than justice. We must fight against injustice as much as we fight for justice." ~ Estelle R. Jorgensen

"We must understand our own white priviledge before we can change how we teach." ~ Deborah Bradley

"In spite of our admiration for change, we are creatures of habit and do not like to change what we teach and how we teach it." ~ Carol Richardson (paraphrased)

"Mankind struggles to find one value, and cannot agree on anything for long." ~ Roberta Lamb (paraphrased)

"Music education professionals are not musicians with pedagogical training. They are also not educators with musical training. It is more complex than that." ~ Wayne Bowman (paraphrased)


I wish I could have written faster!

Anti-Intellectual Society?

In Carol P. Richardson’s presentation, Engaging with the World: Music Education and the Big Ideas, she stated that she believes that our society is anti-intellectual and that critical thinking rarely occurs. This statement was extremely shocking to me. However, the more I think about the world and its perceptions, the more I tend to agree. I feel that the intellect is becoming less and less valued in the world. I feel that the arts, especially literature and musical theater, are becoming less and less artistic, and more and more for pure entertainment. I feel that society no longer wants to promote critical thinking in its art. Every time I turn on the television, I see some sort of comedy that focuses on violent or disgusting humor. What happened to television shows that promoted intellectual humor and actually made its viewers think? I also feel that the greater influence of technology is distracting humans more and more from engaging in intellectual thought. How do we, as educators, stop this phenomenon? How do we, against society, engage our children in critical thinking? It is up to us as educators to bring our society back to an intellectual plane.

Advice From a Teacher's Teacher

I just randomly came across a link to this blog on msn.com called "advice from a teacher's teacher." Notice the language.

An Epidemic
One of my better second year teachers (Kandice) recently wrote me that her class room was infected with “runnidus overthe mouthious” . It seems that the minute she begins to talk, it triggers an automatic talking response from the whole class. My first thought was to bandage the whole class, preferable duct tape. This is just a quick fix and really does not rid us of this virus but can get us in a lot of hot water.
So I began to research several alternatives:
The first step is preventative. We must inoculate against the virus. This comes in the form of clear stated rules that are enforced consistently. You have to do this every time because if it is allowed to escape just once, it becomes contagious and the process has to start all over.
What if you have one or two students who are immune to the inoculation? They keep re-infecting the class? This will take some individualized precautions. Talk to the students privately and give them a special hand signal to let them know you are aware of the behavior. Another alternative is to stand by the offender until they can cease the infection. I have even used a special behavioral plan that consists of tally marks on the desk. This takes a lot of time and effort but the key is not to stop your instruction as it is implemented.
Kandice ask for meditative breathing techniques, which can work but only for isolated cases. Take in a deep breath and try a long, dramatic pause. Then, if necessary, accompany your pause with an equally dramatic stare at the offenders. I call this the “evil eye”. Most seasoned teachers can give a look that chills the soul of any student.
Special Equipment can also be used. I have seen Stop Light Noise Meters or a homemade version that consist of a certain number of levels. Every time the class reaches an unacceptable level then fill in the meter. This gives a visual cue and assists you without stopping instruction. Consequences for reaching a certain level must be enforced.
A stop watch can be used to time the amount of disruption. They will need to pay you back for all the minutes you lose in clssroom instruction.
Sometimes it is just better to give in and put them in an active learning environment that encourages cooperative learning groups and engagement. If you have a certain amount of material you need to lecture , create an Anticipation/Reaction Guide or a Lecture Bingo Card.

Importance of Grading

Last week, we all received our reflection papers with comments from our professor, but no grade. It felt strange not to see the A, B, C, or whatever. I have come to expect some sort of letter or number to show my teacher's opinion of the quality of my work. Professor Schmidt only gave me comments and questions about what I wrote. I have been thinking about what the implications might be if this idea in schools of "getting a grade" were abandoned? Would students embrace their new freedom to grow and learn by engaging in dialogue with their teacher? How difficult would the transition be?

Choices in Music Class

I left class last week feeling confused about the conversation regarding a chorister's choice of voice part in choir. And then I was faced with a student's resistance in my music classroom early last week:

In the lesson, the students chose instruments on which to improvise and followed my conducting (and eventually their peers' conducting) to create their own music. I taped our performances and we critiqued them together. By the end of the class, everyone had an instrument and took part in the ensemble. Every student--except one-- was actively participating and seemed really to enjoy the experience. (This student is often resistant in music class, and in other classes, as I have discussed the problem with her homeroom teachers.) She refused to choose an instrument. Our conversation went like this:
Teacher: [Student], please go pick out an instrument.
Student: I don't want to.
Teacher: Why not?
Student: I just don't want to.
Teacher: It is part of class today that we're playing instruments together. Go pick out whichever one you want to play.
Student: No.
Teacher: (as a last resort) You do realize that your grade in music depends on your participation.
Student: I don't care if I get an F.

Based on our conversation last week, is this okay? Should this student have the right not to participate in class?

Why are schools such easy targets?

I was appalled to come onto the internet to check my email and instead find that there was yet another school shooting. This one was in Pennsylvania, in an Amish schoolhouse. The gunman killed at least three girls and then killed himself as the police tried to get into the schoolhouse. Last week there were two more such incidences. On Wednesday, a drifter went into a Colorado school and took six girls hostage. He then molested them and killed one of the girls, and then himself as police closed in. On Friday, a 15 year old student fatally shot his high school principle.

What is going on?! Why are schools such easy targets for this kind of violence? Is it only because of the large numbers of children congregated at school? And how can these people continue to get into our nation's schools? Are we going to have to resort to metal detectors and guard dogs outside of every school in our nation? Is there no way to protect our students and our teachers from this kind of atrocity?

This is appalling. How can our government just stand by and watch this? Obviously, there is something wrong. And I know, as a future educator, it scares me because we will all be in educational institutions soon.

Something needs to be done, and I'm feeling kind of helpless right now because I don't know what we can do.

living in fear

What hinders us from doing anything outside of our comfort zone is fear, naturally. Humans are programmed to fear the unknown, the seemingly dangerous. To put yourself in front of a room of people, their attention focused on you, your thoughts and your words, would be enough to make most people want to hide under the table. Engage discussion in your classroom as you would amongst friends; start dialouge from genuine intrest and a desire to share viewpoints. Embrace that with a generous passion and desire your students will and want to learn. It will come naturally.

Interesting...

After reading Cathy Benedict's and Patrick Schmidt's article, several things stuck with me. Most of them were good. However, the one thing that I can't seem to get out of my head is a quote that Benedict made on page 6. She wrote "...this possibility of existential crisis hangs over my head and thus consequently over the heads (dunder filled as they may be) of my students." I am sure this was only meant as a joke to help lighten the very heady topic this paper takes on. Nonetheless, it bothered me. I know that if I was a student of Professor Benedict's, I'd be somewhat offended to hear my class spoken about that way in the middle of a conference about social equality. Is it not unfair to assume that her students' minds are filled with garbage (dunder is the lees or dregs of sugar-cane juice and is used in the distillation of rum)? Or am I just being too sensitive about it? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Only for the underprivileged?

Kincheloe states, “Critical pedagogy is interested in the margins of society, the experiences and needs of individuals faced with oppression and marginalization” (23). I believe that these students need us the most. However, how do we not ignore the others in our classrooms? Is it our job to only help the “the margins of society,” or are there also things that we can do for the others?

I think that teachers need to also realize that those “privileged” students also have obstacles in their lives that set them apart from others. They may have money, but they may not have a stable family life. They may have a stable family life, but they may be confused about their identity (shadowed by parents and siblings). We must also be mindful of these students. Even students of the most privileged background can benefit from our critical work.

Language and Music

To what extent does language produce, construct, verify (or have any other relationship to) knowledge? To what extent does music produce, construct, verify (or have any other relationship to) knowledge? At any point does language conflict with music?

Something that I struggle with is the dominance of verbiage over music making in a music classroom. Although I do believe that there is a time and a place for language in our music classrooms, does language ever constrict music making and musical understand? Or, is music just a type of language?

I do not have answers… just questions. I would love to see all of your opinions about this.