Hi Folks,
Here is then the space for your blogs. They should happen everyday except weekends and should be a way to address issues, raise questions, express concerns, or just express what is in you mind, all connected to the readings we are doing in class.
You are asked to to an entry and a response a day but you are most welcome to do more than one. Hopefully, this will become something that aids your understanding and interpretation of the text and thus something that is done frequently.
See you in class...
4 comments:
I really appreciate Fowler's 3 arguments for the value of music education. The first, that "The study of music provides an essential part of humane civilization by encouraging all students to cultivate and refine their sensibilities" really resonates with me as a music teacher of very young children. I've struggled with idea of bringing issues of social justice to my pre-K music classrooms. There are many topics that I just can't address with them yet. But the idea that the empathy and sensitivity to which they're introduced as young musicians will ground them as humans with the tools to use life-long moral sensibilities to compliment the skills they will develop in the rest of their education - that's powerful!
O.K. here we go. First off, I would like to say that out of all of the books I have had to study for the summer MME program this might be the easiest to read. Sometimes I think some authors take pride in using such jargon that it not only takes away from their point and purpose but also makes their contributions unreadable. So far, Woodford has been a pleasure to read. I would also like to apologize if my commentary seems overly negative towards public education. I am still in my "bitter" phase after my experience at my high school this year.
One thing I noticed that struck me as funny was how much he spoke of things in the past tense when they are still prevalent today (he finally begins to connect Dewey and his critics to today on page 13 near the end of the chapter). It was interesting to see that there were these thoughts and this way of thinking going as far back as the early 1900s, yet we, as music educators, have yet to embrace his "democratic" concepts. I mean how many times are we really asked for input in the governing of our school (pages 6 and 7). From my, albeit short, experience there is a virtual canyon between the teachers and administrators/curriculum developers. Even at my school, it went so far that there was a rift and disconnect between the teachers and the guidance department. As Woodford states, it is nothing more than a huge waste of human resources.
When you really think about that, where does that leave the student? If teachers are ranked so low that they are not able to input on the governing of the school, or the overall curriculum, how much lower are the students left? The irony of this is we still wonder why so many students are disconnected from the school as a whole. In my opinion, it is because they see the school as the administrator's school, not as the school of the community.
Another point I really liked was on and around page 4-5 where Woodford mentioned Dewey's "faith in the native intelligence of the common man and woman..."(page 5). I feel many music educators downright ignore the native intelligence of our students. Perhaps it is part of our higher education that we feel we have "earned the right" to exert control over our students' musical values. I know that when I left college with my undergraduate degree I had that type of attitude. I was going to crusade my way into my high school and bring the light of "good quality choral music" to the uneducated masses. Fortunately, I was quickly awakened by my students very early on, yet you still see a lot of that mentality prevalent today. Perhaps instead of rolling their eyes when a student tries to talk about doing a hip hop/rock/metal/etc. song in class they should take the time to find musical value within it. A "C" in a Kanye West beat is the same one Bach used.
That is it, enough on topic talk. I just thought I would throw this up for everyone's viewing pleasure. I tried this in my summer class last year and it failed miserably so hopefully that will not happen this time around. Being the weirdo that I am, I spend countless hours looking at philosophies of people that have literally nothing to do with music or music teaching. The intent of this is to look outside of my profession for perspective. One of those people is the martial artist Bruce Lee. While most people only know him as a martial arts movie star, Bruce Lee literally changed the face of martial arts teaching learning and practice forever. Moreover, his thinking and mentality towards martial arts was so revolutionary many people are only discovering his methodology today. I included a clip from an interview near the end of his life at the bottom of this really long blog post. Right around 4:08 is his famous water speech. Now, in my own way I have translated it from martial arts to music education. I was just curious to see if anyone had any take on it. I will share mine later.
Shaun
This is hosted by You Tube.
Bruce Lee
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLwZc7kXJok
Shaun--thank you for your insightful commentary. I would like to comment on what Dewey called "native intelligence." I believe as educators we must be conscious of students innate intelligence and allow time for that to be nurtured in the classroom. However, having taught middle school for 9 years, it always makes me nervous when students are given the same rights as the teacher to decide the content and flow of the class. If not handled properly, this can lead to wasted time, rather than productive time, as students often use opportunities to talk as a way out of work. Given the limited time that most educators have with their students, we must carefully weigh how much time to devote to student participation, discussion and democratic involvement, with presenting our curricula. Well balanced, these techniques can lead to very powerful learning.
stephen-
I understand what you are talking about here. I had a few students this past year that were very knowlegable on jazz. When I began teaching things like the blues scale and rhythm changes they were asking me very advanced questions. this had me excited and I wanted to engage with them but I knew that I would lose many students and waste their class time if I continued the conversation. It is a tough call.
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