Farewell

Something during the conversation in class yesterday made me think of a question that time did not permit me to ask. We were speaking of growth and the assumption that growth is one of the goal of education. Perhaps there is an easy answer to this which I am overlooking, but here goes:

To what extent does transformation imply growth?

Does transformation always cause us to grow? Perhaps not, but if transformation is on the same level playing field with growth, which one takes more precedence? Which should we be aiming for? Both and just hope that it works out?

More about knowing through music

As a former captain of both math team and choir (yes, the geekdom is limitless), I was very intrigued by the last conversation we were having in class yesterday about different ways of knowing through different subject-perspectives. This conversation reminded me of a thought I'd expressed the other day- I wish we could all be Renaissance women and men. What I mean is, while knowledge is divided into subject areas and specialties, this has been imposed by institutions. Is it not possible to love learning and be curious about many things, but with particular passions and foci? The tragedy of applying for college was deciding, as if once and for all, "what I wanted to be when I grew up." I chose music, because I loved it most. However, I drive to the Lawrenceville campus several times per week to hear non-musical perspectives on teaching, learning, and other areas. HOWEVER, music does have a transcendental quality that for me, nothing else provides. So, in that sense, musical ways of knowing are very powerful.

Still, the more other perspectives I learn, the more connections I make when relating to my world. This is probably why interdisciplinary education appeals to me- so that we can know something many ways. However, as music has that seemingly magical power, I believe it should always be included in interdisciplinary approaches, which has not always been the case.

I askedRandall the question

Hey everyone- I asked Randall the question about gender roles and such that I began expressing in a previous blog and we discussed it for a while. How great that we had the opportunity to engage with writers and ask them questions. How often will we ever have that opportunity. Having Randall and Cathy with us was wonderful. Also by the way- the party was really fun. I enjoyed speaking with everyone- whoever didn't come should have. I dont mean to "other" you--I am sure we will have other times where we can all be together. Good luck writing papers everyone.

De-naturalization

Randall Allsop raised an interesting question to me that we never really had a chance to examine today, so I thought I might raise it up here on the blog. In speaking about natural vs. mechanical means of teaching, he asked "At what expense do we de-naturalize children?" This question is very pertinent to me, as an elementary level teacher. I think many of the issues we have discussed about critical pedagogy and the democratic classroom look different for the high school and university level than for the younger generation that is still very much in their naturalized state.

During the break, I was chatting with Laurie, and it occurred to me that as students go through various stages of development, a democratic classroom is going to take on a different shape. With very young children, there are just certain things that have to be established in their minds and the process of learning for an 8 year old is very different from that of the 17 year old high school student. Similarly, I was thinking that the ideal place for the democratic model might just be in that crazy world we call Jr. High. Think about it- kids are questioning just about everything at that point, so why not capitalize (I need a better word, but this is all that is coming to mind) on that potential learning experience?

Musings from the Left Coast

This is a non-academic post, but before we scatter back to our campuses, I wanted to say thank you for all the dialogs and conversations over these three weeks. Many of you know that I resigned from my job on Monday and am moving to New Jersey in August to go to school full-time. I think that I knew that this walking away from my current toxic work environment was coming, but talking through many music education issues with all of you helped me to clarify my own thoughts and gave me that push of courage that I needed.

So. Thank you!

More of the Same

I know that we have discussed the issue of classroom dynamics before, especially in light of our own class setting modeled after the critical pegdagogy approach, but I had another revelation on my way to the car after class today. For me, there was a definite shift in the mood of the today, and I wondered about the reasoning for this. A couple possibilites, as I see it:

1) We were all so tired and in our tiredness, our minds were in some heightened sense of awareness

2) Our discussion of final papers and grades gave us something relativley solid to anchor onto at a time when many of us are questioning, questioning, questioning with no answers.

3) Seeing each other (and our prof) in another setting last night provided an experience with each other in a different social construct that we have currently experienced.

I am curious if anyone else noticed a change in class mood today at all?

Color Blind and Gender Blind

The Benedict article discusses some problematics behind color-blind teaching because colorblind teaching is really to treat all students like white middle class students which is more harm than good. I find this interesting reading the Allsup article where the male students said they did not even really pay attention to the fact that theyhad a girl working in their group. Of course they knew they did but it didn't really cross their mind particularly. This idea is sort of glossed over in the Allsup. Is this problematic? Should the girl be treated differently because she is a girl. Did the boys treat her as a boy? Is this discrimination, sexist or am I reaching on this one. I just find it interesting that color blind is a big problem and gender blind is not even mentioned. Maybe I will ask Allsup tomorrow.