One of the most impactful lessons I had during my education was in my senior year English class. This course was taught by Mr. Buckridge, a late 20-somethings man who was very much a different sort of person from who you normally encountered in my high school. He was young, had multiple tattoos and piercings, liked very eccentric music, and had an approach to teaching English that I will forever appreciate. The class had an emphasis on critical thought, expanding perspectives, and the discovery of ourselves and our beliefs through writing and defending our positions.
One of the most memorable class periods, we had a discussion about a controversial and highly relevant topic at the time: gay marriage. This was around the time when the issue was going to the Supreme Court, and positions among the students in the class were extremely divided. However, the discussion itself was remarkably civil, and I think everyone got a lot from it. For myself personally, I had a startling new realization of the diversity of opinions, even within my own friend group and classmates, and I better understood my own beliefs in relation to them. In addition, I was elected representative of my particular side, and had provide arguments for our position in front of the class. This was difficult, as I was anxious about discussing a controversial subject in front of others, and even more so when it became apparent that the student presenting the other side was one of my good friends. However, I learned a valuable lesson from that day about how one should formulate and sometimes change their own beliefs, the value of civil discussion, and the realization that you can disagree with someone and still value their friendship regardless.
This sort of lesson is something that I would dearly love to be able to impart on my future students; I feel that it is just important to build a student’s character and foster their growth as person as it is to teach them academic material.
In music education today, there is a somewhat disturbing lack of exploration into music outside of the traditional classical canon. In my classes, I want to teach music and styles from many different places and time periods, and I want to provide historical and cultural context for the students. I want to show them how political and historical events shaped the styles and genres of music we have today, and how these factors affected the great composers and their most famous works. I will do my best to challenge their perspectives on what “good” music is, and help them to learn how to justify their opinions with critical reasoning. The expansion of perspectives and the development of critical thought, in my opinion, should be taught by all educators, not merely relegated to the English classroom alone. By teaching a more comprehensive and inclusive repertoire of music with my students, I hope to develop their musicianship and open their minds at the same time.
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