I'll shove the "ism" too

I mentioned in my earlier blog on Democracy in our classroom. For any of us, we have the power to make decisions in our own classrooms. But when those ideas conflict with ideas that students have, and we let the students take the idea and run, the only thing we're left to do as leaders is facilitate. It seems to me this is exactly what happened with multiculturalism.

When I walked into my practicum classroom for the first time, I felt extremely comfortable. The environment was extremely conducive for learning, the resources Andrew and I were told we had were remarkable and the kids were at the forefront, driving the music program. What I failed to recognize (and still do so) is how much of an affect the diverse backgrounds have on our classroom. The school district we teach in is a tremendous melting pot of students whose parents work in and out of New York City, Philadelphia and many other successful businesses around the greater Princeton area. It would seem as though these parents know their children need math and literature; however, it seems to be more of a necessity for these children to be studying in the arts. The arts have given these students a chance to put what they do in their classroom activities as well as their real lives and put them to use in their music classes.

For example, one girl in the 7th and 8th grade general music class studies dance. Accordingly, our co-op assigned her a piano piece entitled "Ballet Dancer". Within the piece, there was a sense of legato and the use of pedal helped the student connect the flowing use of her body in her dance classes to what was happening on the music page.

The Egyptian unit for 6th graders gives students a chance to look at some of the every day life activities of ancient Egyptians by means of a small play. This play consists of one group who is in charge of the music and the other group, in charge of the pantomime and acting. One narrator leads the children in a rehearsed script that looks at the typical day of an aristocratic family in ancient Egypt. Two children in this class happen to be Egyptian. One went home and discussed the lessons with his parents, and he managed to bring back to class some Egyptian money as well as stories about the traditional music sung and played in their families. Another student actually had a mother that was on a business trip in Egypt. As a present, she brought him back some sort of pennant or flag, but the meaning of the flag was unclear. All in all, this lesson is something I would definitely emulate in a classroom if I were to teach general music in the future. Why?

The answer does not lie in interest. When talking about culture in a classroom, its one thing to read about it in a book. It's another thing to experience it in person. This is not "multiculturalist" thought. This is simply having interest in all parties involved in a classroom. The experience in a classroom should be a shared one. As teachers, is that not the goal we thrive on each day? The hopes that one day everyone will show enthusiasm towards what we teach, how we teach it and everyone's discussions and thoughts? In short, I agree with what Ryan has to say about throwing the "ism" out of our vocabulary. Why can't we all just honor multicultural actions instead of having to put a label on all of the actions we perform in the classroom to meet up to standards that we don't trust in the first place? As teachers shouldn't we want to show our students other worlds that connect to theirs? Instead of being told by white philosophers, administrators and clinicians what should be taught in our classrooms, why can't we use intuition a little more often? If I'm a Latin American teacher teaching in an area where a majority of the students are Indian, am I going to sit there and demonstrate raga? Most of the kids already know what this is in their own family traditions. As a teacher, I would invite in some parents to demonstrate what's going on in their households with music on a daily basis.

To sum up, when one talks about multiculturalism, the term is boxed immediately. To explain what boxed means: a definition and hurdles fall into a teacher's lap: to explain what a definition of multiculturalism is it is the relating to several cultural or ethnic groups within a society. to explain the hurdles, it is the everyday moments that teachers deal with to make teaching happen.

Does this make sense?