Culture

“Music Education involves helping children explore and imaginatively identify with other people and their music.” This week I started my elementary praxis work at Sunnymead Elementary School and found I was really able to relate to this statement made by Woodford. It is apparent that in the world today, families come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. At Sunnymead Elementary, everyone is from a different background. When I say background I am not talking just cultural. Experiences and talent vary as well. Each student has a favorite subject or class. Some relate to math, while others relate to spelling or english. What I have found throughout my first week of observing is that the music classroom brings all of these interests together and everyone is equal. The atmosphere that the teacher has created is safe, colorful, and tons of fun. No child can deny that or keep from participating.

Even the students who were hesitant at first joined in when the teacher asked all of them to play the air guitar or beat on a hand drum. There were smiles and laughs of excitement. The children could not help but enjoy themselves and express their enthusiasm to the other classmates and the teacher. Despite that these children have all had completely different experiences and lives, in the music classroom, their culture and differences are put aside.

Multiculturalism should not be confined to “Class, today we are going to talk about what a Native American tribal chant is. Sarah, why don’t you demonstrate how it is done in your culture?” It should be approached with a “Class, everyone sing and move like this!” No student should be singled out at any time because of their background. The music classroom is the perfect place to demonstrate that we are one community.

Woodford states that some believe “all musical cultures and subcultures are essentially different and independent rather than overlapping and interdependent.” At one time I found this to be true but now I realize that musical cultures are something we all have in common. Whether it is an African drumming piece or a patriotic song, we can all learn something from everyone else’s interests in music. The basis for ALL musical culture, no matter what type, is making music in some capacity. Our cultures have more in common than we think, and it is up to us as music educators to prove it.