blog post 3.5 Kohn

 Hyperlinks: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED442707.pdf

This week I choose to look at the content through the lens of music, and in particular the benefits of music on children and their learning.  The article I found talks about the influence of music of a child’s brain development, academic performance, and practical life skills.  Looking at the chart from Alfie Kohn from this lens we can see how music could make the classroom a much more welcoming and engaging space for children.  Music would have an impact on the “location the teacher” and the “Teacher’s voice”, giving the teacher a chance to move around and engage with the kids while also being seen as a more fun and less intimidating figure.  As mentioned in the article by Jenny Nam Yoon, “Musical math also reduces students' anxieties about addition and multiplication. An added benefit is the growth of students' self-confidence and sense of mathematical accomplishment. This teaching idea is especially helpful with students having difficulty with basic mathematical concepts” (Bard, Dean 1992).  Music makes the content much less scary to learn for students, giving them higher self confidence and giving a new chance for students who struggle with math to understand the content in a new way.  Music would also help with Kohn’s standard of “student face’s” and “sounds”.  Using music more in education would increase student engagement because it would mix up the lesson plan and give students who don’t excel with traditional teaching a new way to excel.  Also, it would give the students a chance to collaborate and the class to sing and make music as a whole, creating a sense of community and togetherness.  

When looking at culturally responsive pedagogy through the lens of music you see many benefits.  The first connection I made was that music programs are often the first thing to get cut from a school if they are experiencing a budget problem.  This does not so much affect private schools or schools with a surplus of money (happen to be schools with a larger white population), but more affects public schools with a budget deficit (many times will be mostly students of color).  Adding music into the teaching or core curriculum can give kids, no matter how much money their families or their schools have, a chance to try out making music.  As shown in the article students who practice music have higher test scores, so adding musical instruction to all classrooms would help to level the playing field from this perspective.  Another way music and culture are intertwined is with teachers sharing their culture and students’ cultures.  Music and culture are very connected, and a teacher can share their culture with their students through music, while introducing them to different thoughts and backgrounds.  It would also work the other way, where a teacher who doesn’t share much similar culture to their students can try to relate to them by playing music that the students value.  Another way music education is culturally responsive is in the teaching of life skills.  “Discipline, ability to manage stress, cooperation, appreciation of their culture and the cultures others, and learning to express their feelings are valuable and necessary skills in achieving a balanced and healthy life.” (Yoon 27).  While schools teach all students the same core curriculum, they often don’t teach life skills and sometimes even assume students will have learned these from home.  However, every student has a different home life and aren’t all taught important skills by their parents.  Having musical education will help teach students skills that the core subjects leave out.

Article: (MUSIC IN THE CLASSROOM: ITS INFLUENCE ON CHILDREN'S BRAINDEVELOPMENT, ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE, AND PRACTICAL LIFE SKILLS, by Jenny Nam Yoon, https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED442707.pdf)

week 3 blog post Kozol

 Connections: when connecting ‘Amazing Grace' to Johnson, you can see the connection in the ignoring of privilege and connection of privilege relating to the lack of privilege.  In the article by Kozol you see how the welfare and health system pays no attention to people with a lack of privilege.  The article references the idea of how ‘people are poor by choice’, showing how false this is by showing real life examples of people with no choices because of where they live, their race, and their economic status.  This part of Brooklyn is shown as a place that is ignored by those with any power or privilege to change the living situation.

When connecting ‘Amazing Grace’ to Delpit I thought of the culture of power and how when the rules aren’t stated by those in power, it makes change impossible.  In Amazing Grace this is shown in examples where people aren’t able to access government aid or social security, and the rules and steps are changed to make the process even more difficult.  The people with power put these systems in place to claim there are ways to get financial help, however don’t check to see if they are actually accessible because they don’t have any personal stake in it or urgency.

Week 2 response post - Delpit (Ben L blog)

 Argument: Delpit argues that there is a culture of power, with unspoken rules in place that is seen by those who don’t have power while being unseen/ignored by those who do have power.  Those in the culture of power make the rules, and should teach those rules to those not in power for two reasons.  One is to increase the ability to communicate between different culture groups, and two is so those not in power can understand the “rules” and increase effectiveness in that culture.  The problem is that those who realize this don’t have the power and can’t make this change, while those who do have the power don’t recognize it so they don’t feel the need to explain the rules.  This is explained in the example of a school setting, where the teachers with the power (the cultural majority) feel they know the best way to teach all kids regardless of culture/background, and don’t listen to input from those with less power (the cultural minority).  

Delpit highlights how this culture of power would affect students in school.  Teachers who are in the culture of power teach children based on as if they were all from the culture of power.  Doing this leaves behind those students who aren’t from this culture, and don’t have the same advantages and skills learned at home.  Delpit believes that schools need to start teaching these skills to make sure everyone is on an even playing field, or at least more even than what it would be otherwise.