BENEDICT DISCUSSIONPresented by Deidre Sheehan

SOME THOUGHTS… I think Benedict has interesting opinions, but I think she has

come to them from the wrong perspective. Benedict warns of the dangers of adhering to a methodology like Orff or Kodaly, which, in her opinion, can so easily lead to the alienation of students and teachers and the implementation of music as a means of production.

In my opinion, the danger she speaks of is not inherent in the teaching methodologies or philosophies themselves, but rather in the attitudes of individual teachers.

As educated people, we should know the dangers of believing or implementing any one idea blindly or exclusively, without questioning the practice, whether it be religion, politics or music education.

It seems to me that the dangers Benedict speaks of would most likely result from teachers being blind, lazy, or afraid, and ceasing to stay with the educational findings of the times and the musics of their students

Using any one practice exclusively will almost certainly limit our students. I feel that many of Benedicts feared pitfalls could be avoided by each individual teacher’s responsibility in examining their motivations and teaching.

IN CRITIQUE OF THE ARTICLE….

After reading the article, do you have a strong sense of how a classroom improved by looking through the lens of Marx at its teaching practices would look?

Go to the next slide to see what Deidre thinks!

DEIDRE THINKS…

As a critique of the article as a whole, I find that it really takes away from what Benedict is trying to say that she doesn’t present a clearer model of how a modified Orff or Kodaly or other teaching model might look, or at least give an example of how her own classroom has been transformed.

A WIZARD CONNECTION… In the fifth book Harry Potter series, the Ministry of

Magic appoints a teacher from among their ranks to take over “Defense Against the Dark Arts” classes at Hogwarts out of fear that Hogwarts is secretly training a wizard army to take over the ministry.

For those of you who have not read the series, this is “hogwash”.

In these classes, the students are now only allowed to learn the “theory” of using defensive magic; they are never allowed to practice using a defensive spell because, as Professor Umbridge explains, they are unlikely to ever be attacked during her classes!

Wizard angst, secret defensive study groups, and general rebelliousness ensue.

A WIZARD CONNECTION…

While this is an extreme example compared to the ways in which Benedict says we might use teaching methods to control and limit our students:

Do you that control and limitations we impose on our students musicking might be done out of fear on the part of the teacher?

If so, fear of what?

DEIDRE THINKS… I think that we might sometimes be afraid that our

students might produce something that we won’t know how to respond to, or ask musical questions that we in fact do not have the answers to.

If we can set limits, for example by taking bars off an Orff instrument, we can predict in advance the possible outcomes of student musicking, and be prepared for such outcomes.

It can be scary, as a teacher, to know that your students could ask or encounter nearly anything and that you may not have responses for much of it.

Yet, these can be some of the most valuable educational experiences for both students and teachers.