Who are my students?
Eric Johnson
11.11.09
CP III
In our Skype discussion with her, Dr. Hildegard Froehlich talked about the concept of picking music to be learned and performed within an educational system based on the needs of the students. She believes there must be a balance between the music the music educator picks and the music which already exists in the students’ lives outside of the classroom. Beyond this, the pieces picked by the teacher must address the needs of the students. This is not a terribly revolutionary idea, but one which has intrigued me – I wanted to share some of my thoughts. If one is going to present music from the students’ lives and for the students’ needs, one first has to know the students. The Froehlich text is all about the identity of a music teacher, but I cannot help to think that so much of that identity is based on the experiences with and identities of that teacher’s students. The discovery of students identities and needs is something addressed in Critical Pedagogy when teachers ask the question, “Who are my students?”.
Students find themselves in music classrooms for various reasons. They have no choice in most public elementary schools, and later in life are either forced or choose to be involved in secondary music. The reasons behind this are a large part of their identity in the classroom and also guide the teacher’s choice of music. For me, there is a need to reconcile between what we think is good music and good art, and maybe what is more “accessible” to the students. A student who really doesn’t want to be in your music class is probably going to be turned off by singing Bach chorales or listening to Mozart symphonies. There are composers who are writing today, however, whose music might appeal more to these unsuspecting students. That being said, there are other students who would love nothing more than Bach and Mozart. And then there is the music that child actively experiences and appreciates outside of the walls of the school – a major part of their musical identity and a peek into how they engage with music.
While I do not claim to have the recipe for a balanced diet of classroom music, I think it is important to remember a few things. First, you can never please everyone. There will always be a student or a group of students who will not allow themselves to engage in music which is not familiar to them. Secondly, great art is part of an education. While some music might not appeal, part of an education is about exposure to the great, the unfamiliar, the things which can change who we are and expose what makes us unique. Thirdly, you cannot leave the identity, needs and passions of the students out of the equation. Their lives must be used to engage them in new things, and it is the hope of music education that these new exposures will help to shape “who they are” and “who they will become”.
