Before the debate I had thought I made up my mind completely, I knew that I was sure I wanted music education to be very much involved in public schools. I thought that not having music education in public schools would take away the music opportunity offered to kids. I also thought how difficult it would be to find a job as a music educator if we removed music from the public school system. They began their debates in ways as which I though, I though the representative of why it should be in public schools (A) said basically exactly what I though he would say. However, the representative of the opposing opinion of, why music education should not be taught in a public school setting (B), made some very solid points and ended up swaying my position. One point that convinced me very well that music education can be a bit overwhelming and restricted in a public school system is that, we have all these standards we have to meet and most of the time they are geared towards things such as classical rep. We need to stop limiting our public school education to classical rep with these traditional orchestras and wind bands, we need to be flexible. School systems need to be able to provide opportunities such as rock band, drum circles, and even rap groups. With all these limitation like how it has to happen on school days or during the school day, or has to be tested or give a performance. Its just to much on the students and makes it to difficult for them to experience what musical experiences THEY want. With music oprotunites that us educators can host or direct students to, we can allow for a more individual experience, not just limited on school but on all ages. One thing grad student Daniel Warron said that really touched my heart was " I want students to be able to say "I get the opportunity to play in a band with my son and daughter every Monday and Thursday together" we need to allow these musical experiences between families". If I could come to a house hold and help a family start a band together that would be one of the coolest things ever I think. The moderator asked me a question of "Name a time you had one of your favorite musical experiences outside of the classroom, I described my times jamming with Joey. I don't think their were any points I strongly disagreed with, but by the time the debate was over I was very torn. I believe personally we should keep music education In public schools, however, I think that we shouldn't limit our only jobs to public school. We need to start programs outside of school that are more flexible and allow for a completely diffrent path of a musical experience, if we have failed to provide it in school (which I believe we have), then we need to still facilitate an experience the student desires. Do you know how cool it would be to start Beatles cover student band outside of school, that would quite literally be the sickest thing ever. We have these limitations of funding however, one of the biggest hurdles of music education that we deal with today, we need to find funding, Ive been looking into it because as an educator I really would like start this outside of my schools in the future.
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One of the things that we have covered in class that still stands out to me is the lack of improvisation involved in a public school setting when we are expected to have opportunities to improvise, everywhere in our k-12 experience. I personally had no opportunity to improvise in my k-12 experience until I joined jazz band, but a student shouldn't have to be In jazz band to experience something such as this. One day in our class, we had a guest lecture given by Dr. Bledsoe, In the process of this we ended up gathering in small groups and put on a small performance that was completely improvised, this brought me much joy because this was many students in the classes first time improvising. Being a big Jazz enthusiast improvising was a big part of what I do, heck I sometimes improvise outside of jazz in my classical music to see how creative I can get with things.
We then covered in Allsup a section on our relationship with your teacher. When studying at my practicums, I noticed the many different relationships you have with your students, their are many different types or relationships. I feel like this is one of the most important things in a classroom, I think I would like to come off as friendly as I can be and not label myself as "The one in charge" but as "The one who know where to go next" I want to become friends with my students and teach them more then how to become musicians, but how to become a valuable person in society and develop as a person. I think its also important your students don't walk all over you, you have to set boundaries especially when students start neglecting each others musical experience. One of the best relationships I would like to replicate is the one I have with my saxophone professor, I can tell he is caring and enjoys teaching me and I enjoy learning and developing as a player in lessons, but he has expectations and boundaries that he expects me to follow and I respect that. We also covered in the class the idea of what if every student doesn't have the same drive for music, and I actually don't mind that, I hope to instill the great musical experience I can provide in my classroom to my students. If you can lead a horse to water and you can't make him drink. Let the kids experience music how they intend to, weather it be a after school activity for fun, or even a student who takes extra circular music classes because they hope to be a music major also one day. You should still give them the same amount of opportunity and attention. If you fail to do this you might miss out on an opportunity of your student deciding mid school process that they want to go farther in their music experience, and you have to be there for them. `Allsup, R. E. (2016). Remixing the classroom: toward an open philosophy of music education. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. |
Brandon RhinehartHere I will be posting reflective essays and philosophical documents and other assignments Archives
December 2019
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