PART 1: Beethoven and Bach….the great disciplinarians!
Ashley…I am eagerly awaiting your response to this post.
Last night I was sitting around chatting with my parents about school, kids, university classes, and a variety of other education topics. I mentioned our class blog assignment as well some of the topics I/we’ve all discussed in class and on our blogs. I mentioned that I had referenced the Europe trip and how the tours of Art museums contributed to an appreciation of art history. Then….to my utter shock my parents mentioned this story that they heard on CBC radio a few days ago.
CBC Story: There is a school in England that has been using Classical Music as a punishment for student behaviour. If students misbehave during the school day they have to spend an hour in a detention room with nothing but Beethoven and Bach. Teachers claim that the strategy is working as students will do anything to avoid having to spend time listening to that music. Upon hearing this I thought to myself…."well…it’s probably not the music that is the deterrent but rather the fact that they have to stay after school.”
Hang on…it gets crazier. Apparently word got out to some local businesses in the community that the trouble making students didn’t like to hear that kind of music so shop owners, who had been complaining about graffiti, vandalism, and unwanted loitering, began playing loud classical music on speakers outside their shops…and get this…the problems stopped. Apparently kids didn’t want to hang out at their old meeting spots if they would have to listen to classical music.
What does this say about music education in England?
Would that work in Winnipeg?
Even if it would work….would that be a reasonable approach? Is it offensive to use it…or just pragmatic?
Do we need to spend more time in schools teaching kids to appreciate classical music? Art? Literature?
I was thinking about these questions and then it hit me…. If the situation was flipped I would act the same way. I would stop going to Cousins Deli (my favourite pub) if they started playing Taylor Swift and Mily Cyrus (sp?). I am not saying that Taylor Swift is this generations.... but it does point out that some music sounds good to some people and can turn the stomach of others.
PART 2: Post-Nationalism – Baby Ming …. Chinese or American?
To continuing our discussion on post-nationalism and provide a current example from the sporting world….i found this article on ESPN.com yesterday.
“BEIJING -- Chinese basketball fans want to know -- will Yao Ming's baby be an American?
The Houston Rockets center, who is sidelined this season with a broken left foot, recently returned to the United States with wife Ye Li. That prompted speculation among his followers that the baby girl due this summer could be born in America.
Yao's personal life is closely followed by his many fans at home, from his 2007 Shanghai wedding to the former basketball player to reports last month the couple is expecting a baby girl in July.”
Yao Ming and his wife Ye Li were both born and raised in China. They began their amateur and professional basketball careers in China and both competed for China in the last Olympics. Yao now lives and works in America….and makes quite a bit of money at it I might add….16.4 million dollars to be exact. So, his national pride and allegiance are aligned with China but his occupational and financial allegiance is to the States. His daughter is due to be born this summer and if born in the US will be eligible for citizenship. Because Yao and Ye are both Chinese citizens their daughter can also be granted Chinese citizenship, however, Chinese law that does not allow for anyone to hold dual citizenship with another country.
The following quotes were given from Chinese basketball fans…
"Yao Ming is an individual, not a political tool”
"Only an idiot would pass up American citizenship"
However, the quote that I found most interesting was "He has the right to choose where his child is born and what kinds of medical care and education will be available to her. His child's citizenship has nothing to do with loyalty."
What then does have to do with loyalty? What has a bigger impact on developing loyalties than education?
Do the Chinese fans really think a child could be born and raised in the lifestyle of an NBA star in a private (or public) high school in Houston Texas and still develop her biggest loyalty to China?
Wishful thinking….but I doubt it.
PS. my surgery went well. i'm really sore and moving really slow but feeling pretty good!
The music thing is post-modernistic creativity at its best (worst). Imagine what would happen if a bunch of baby boomers decided to take up skate boarding and occupy the urban parks!!!It's interesting the need for personal space and the different ways in which we can invade others space. Agitating music has been used by fast food restaurants in the past to subliminally encourage their customers to get out...seems like a continuation of that theme.
ReplyDeleteOk. Here I go. Are you ready?
ReplyDeleteI had a very strong reaction to that story you shared about music being used as discipline. I was actually very upset and angry to hear that! That would be like me giving students who were acting up in music pages and pages of math questions to do as punishment. What a way to turn them off math and associate it with negative feelings! I can't believe they would do such a thing! Even if the students are more concerned about having to stay after school than with having to listen to classical music, anyone who knows even the slightest tidbits about psychology would know that they are obviously going to begin to associate classical music with negative experiences. I just can't believe they would do that! And we wonder why education and people in general are going down the drain?! That is definitely education at its worst. Wouldn't it be more beneficial to spend that detention time learning something about responsibility or respect rather than simply trying to satiate them with music to the point of hating it? I'm still so angry to hear this that I'm having trouble forming my furious thoughts into comprehensive arguments. There you go stirring the pot again, Ryan!
As for using it as a crime deterrent, I don't know if I see that as quite the same. Music is commonly used as an advertising tool, and it dictates clientele. I actually think it's kind of an interesting idea - if there is too much crime specifically by youth in a certain area, make that area less appealing to youth!
That being said, of course I want youth to appreciate all kinds of music, including classical. I don't like the fact that they "run away" from it. But there is still a huge difference between appreciating different things and actually liking them. I hate rap. I don't like it at all. But because I appreciate music as a form of art and as a form of expression, I don't think I could ever say that it is not a valid form of music. This does not mean, however, that I would hang around a place that played rap 24/7. I would run away too! So while I think it is important that students appreciate all kinds of music, I certainly don't expect them to like all kinds of music and want to listen to it on their own time.
But you posed an interesting question - what does this say about education? And here are MY two answers:
a) The use of a certain kind of music to discipline children is a horrendous idea and whoever thought of that obviously doesn't have enough creativity or thoughtfulness to be proactive and try to FIX things - they are just being lazy by trying deter them by using something completely unrelated.
b) The people who realized that music can have such control over our actions, feelings and responses and use it to shape their businesses obviously DO understand the power and importance of music, and I say bravo to them.
I think one's sense of identify will be affected by where one has the most emotional experiences. Since Yao Ming's daughter probably won't go to China too often, it will be difficult for her to have those emotional experiences that will tie her to a place. She will have those experiences in the United States. But if Yao Ming and his wife provide a rich home-life full of Chinese cultural experiences, she will be more likely to develop allegiances to her Chinese ancesty. But will she have allegiances to China, I think not. She will probably consider herself to be a hyphenated American.
ReplyDeleteI have an interesting article from the Globe and Mail from two years ago about how many second generation immigrant Canadians do not have a strong sense of attachment to Canada. Some second-generation Canadians are actually returning to their parents' homeland to live and work. What does this say about multiculturalism in Canada? What kinds of experiences did previous generations have that more recent generations are not? Or, is this a reality with second generation immigrants, or all Canadians from this generation?
I like the sound of Thailand's approach to curriculum development. It is ripe with opportunity make SLO's relevant to regions, while having a connecting framework. I guess the challenge would be making sure the SLO's didn't become too trendy and needed to be changed too often.
ReplyDelete