Concerns with Community
Hannah De Los Reyes
CP III
10/19/09
Even from Block’s introduction, one issue of music education seems to be pursuing me more than any other. That issue might be placed under the umbrella of the antithesis of the individual vs. community. Unfortunately, I fear that this type of question is not followed by an easy answer, or even what we would think of as an answer at all. In fact, since I have begun pondering the question, I have been only plagued with more questions.
‘Community’ often suggests that individuals subjugate their will and desires for the ‘common good’ of the group. Block says that “individual transformation comes at the cost of the community” (Block pg. 5), suggesting that individuals and community are inherently at odds with one another. Although it seems like this idea of community is a harmless or even beneficial value on a small scale (such as when singing in a choir) with closer inspection, it is easy to see great danger in this idea. As we saw in the trailer for the movie A State of Mind, societies such as North Korea often use this idea as a justification for the government to have complete control over the people. Citizens are indoctrinated into the belief that the greatest honor is to conform and be obedient to the state in order to achieve the ‘greatest good’ for the people. The problem with this idea however, is that it is impossible for one person or group of people to know what is ‘good’ for every individual. Furthermore, we know from anecdotal evidence that this form of society usually results in great violence and suffering.
But how do communism and socialism have to do with community in music education? Surely, the two are entirely different. After all, Block talks about community in a much different sense because his idea focuses on a kind of volunteerism. He talks about building community by having accountability for one’s actions and taking responsibility of one’s contribution or lack thereof to the group. He argues that asking difficult questions and having the student-led teaching are ways in which to build community. Contributors to Critical Pedagogy talk about this type of community as well, where individuals are respected and the teacher is not the leader, but an equal participant in the learning process. These ideas of music education seem vastly different from socialism and they are. But, I feel like the danger is when we take these models of great communities and try to use them within systems where this type of community is virtually impossible.
These models may even possibly mask the true nature of education. Education in public school simply cannot be voluntarism. The whole system is built and funded by violence and coercion. This is not always an easy fact to recognize, but the bottom line is that if someone does not pay their taxes to fund public education, they will eventually have force used against them. Brett Veinotte talks about this coercion in his podcast School Sucks. Furthermore, education is fundamentally used to teach students how to be obedient and conform.
The question then becomes, how do we prevent our community building in music from being hijacked into propaganda for the ideals of the state—obedience, conformity, and how to be a docile citizen? How do we prevent our communities in music from becoming symbolism for communism on a larger scale? How do we participate and build community in the public school system without either condoning it or being unknowingly used as a pawn in a larger political game?
Bradley’s article Oh That Magic Feeling! addresses this topic specifically. She describes her article as “questioning where the lines blur between solidarity, nationality, and fascistic forms of community…” (Bradley pg. 2) As I have used the example of North Korea, Bradley uses the example of “the Third Reich, a regime that manipulated music’s performativity to build support for Nazism under the guise of German Nationalism” (Bradley pg. 10). She also talks about how MENC’s National Anthem Project may be coming dangerously close to American nationalistic propaganda.
So again, the questions are how do we as music educators reconcile our ideas of building community with the larger ideals of the educational system and its push toward nationalism and greater governmental control over its citizens? Is the idea of subjugating the individual for the benefit of the community, which we in music education inevitably teach, in reality one that can too easily be hijacked by propagandists? What, if anything, can be done in the face of these issues?
Block, Peter. Community: The Structure of Belonging. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc. San Francisco. 2008.
Bradley, Deborah. Oh That Magic Feeling! Multicultural Human Subjectivity, Community and Fascism’s Footprints. Philosophy of Music Education Review, 17, no. 1, Spring 2009.
Gordon, Daniel. A State of Mind. Very Much So/Passion Pictures. 2004. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVBcYEV6Wgs.
Veinotte, Brett. School Sucks: The End of Public Education. http://schoolsucks.podomatic.com/. 2009.
