Democracy is absent

and so am I.

When we all get the picture that we are not being "spoonfed" material, but rather learning the material instead of having to question every other sentence that we read, I will return to class. I find it incomprehensible that for three weeks we haven't had one bad thing to say about Woodford, only about the way this text is being handled. And quite frankly, I do not enjoy thinking about being frustrated, nervous, and aggressive all day in the hopes that things will turn around. For the past three days, I have felt nothing but disgust for the way things were handled in our classroom on Tuesday. If one child did not understand a lesson on Ancient Greek music, or the terminology of "lyre" as opposed to using a word they might be more familiar with (i.e. harp), I would seek out a real life example, organize a field trip to a museum, set up a youtube video, or simply select another resource from which we can all understand together.

This ultimatum had me thinking as well. Are we really here for the grade? Are we here just to pass as Dr. Schmidt and Mr. Heckman presume? Are we here because this is the process by which hierarchy works (i.e. you pass c.p.1, you move on to c.p.2, etc.)? I am convinced after seeing most of your blogs and your work inside the classroom, outside the classroom, and through conversation that if you stuck each individual in a box alone, we would come out of that box learning something we did not know before. This is part of our generation. We have been taught as a class, from a very young age that knowledge is power (Thank you schoolhouse rock) and I feel that knowledge has taken a step back in the last three weeks for pointless arguments over how the class is to be run.

In conclusion, I ask you to tell all of your students in general music who do not understand "The Marriage of Figaro", impressionism, music theory or piano to get out of the classroom, skip assignments to see how they react. This is not about reactionary policy. This is about a classroom. This is about who we are now as students, as individuals and musicians. Our philosophies, as Ryan as pointed out, should be bubbling at the moment. But we will have difficulty with these philosophies considering we only work with children for three hours (at most) a day. Let's face it: most of our philosophies will be thrown out when our third year of teaching begins and revamped with new ideas of practicality. After asking a renowned teacher on their explanation of Postmodern theory and its influence on their teaching and the coagulation between the different art forms, I found out they barely knew anything about this term that philosophers have coined. It seems like a mere gimmick that puts money in the pockets of big name philosophers. And does it? You tell me who's running our classroom right now. Is it the students with the questions? Or the philosophers without answers to why postmodernism does not have a definition? Why in three weeks have we spent time arguing about the definition of postmodernism when the "enlightened thinkers" of our class have not mentioned Modernity or Modernism once? And why when it comes to practical sides of our teaching in postmodernism is democracy left out of our classroom?

When these questions can be answered with depth and thought by students, I will be happy to sleep peacefully. Until then, I will select alternative resources for you all to critically reflect on the weeks to come. Enjoy!