Through my interviews I got an overall consensus that teachers feel multiculturalism is an important part of education. What interested me more though was how the teachers thought students responded to different cultures in the classroom. I have noticed in music that when we play a piece that sounds really different or “crazy,” the kids sometimes laugh. My coop. thought this might be because of “nerves.” She says, they “giggle because it sounds odd or unfamiliar.” I do not get the impression that these students are laughing out of disrespect. A fifth grade teacher told me her students always seem to love discussing other cultures. She hopes that through multicultural education she can help her students “eradicate bias” and also hopes that they become spokespeople for multiculturalism. This teacher gave the example that she hopes if students hear a prejudice or racial comment made at home that her students have enough awareness and sensitivity to teach their parents and correct the comment.
I think multicultural education is especially important to consider at the elementary level because it forms the basis for so much that is learned and experienced later in life. A teacher responded that some of her students come in with a wealth of information (she calls it their “little backpack of knowledge”) about various cultures and others come in as more of a “clean slate.” Especially for those who have little to no experience with different cultures (as is the case for many at Hillcrest because of the lack of diversity), making this part of the classroom experience is essential. My coop. makes sure she does not just include music from different cultures, but also that she discusses it, bringing in social studies, language, and other subjects. She says, “it is important to appreciate diversity, not as just musicians but as citizens of the world.”
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I am mostly just replying to this comment because I'm having problems actually starting a post. I completely agree that multicultural education is an extremely important thing. I also wonder though if there is a large difference between how we teach multiculturalism in elementary school and high school. Once students have gotten to high school, one would hope that they have been getting the multicultural view of the arts. Once we are in a situation of a performing ensemble in the high school setting, it becomes more important not to just know that there are different styles of music, but what exactly we can do to adapt to that particular style. I think that with high schoolers it is also much easier to begin discussing what in the culture makes the music a certain way. War? Slavery? Freedom? These are all things that impact the music that comes out of certain areas. It starts to become more than, "In Africa they play drums a lot," and instead, "Percussion is extremely important to these people because they believe it stirs up the Gods," and so on. Then we have to find ways to relate this to our own lives so that we may adequately honor the cultures that we are learning about. I think that first and foremost it is important to teach the music, and this certainly does involve the time period and social happenings in that time. When teaching the music of Shostakovich, its important to understand what was happening in Russia with Stalin to truly understand the music. I will be interested to hear what people that are teaching in elementary schools think about whether or not teaching multiculturalism in high school/middle/elementary is different or not.
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