CPIII Blog
I have a question I wanted to ask all of you. Today, Erina, Kaili and I went to our practicum school and our teacher was describing to us an issue he experienced with one of his students. He said that the student was unhappy with the fact that he chose Christian pieces for the Holiday Concert (along with Hanukkah and Kwanza pieces). The teacher said he tried to be an neutral as possible, but it is difficult because so many "traditional" holiday and non-holiday pieces are rooted in Christianity (Requiems, Glorias, etc.) How do you think the best way to walk the line on this issue is? It got me thinking about how I will approach this issue when I am faced with it.
posted by Caroline @ 8:11 PM
3 Comments:
I was going to post something along the lines of this issue, that is, religious music's role in schools. I can see both sides of the argument, but I also see so many amazing (by popular standards) works being left out of students' repertoire because they speak of a certain religion.
I ran into a strange situation in my elementary practicum last semester in which the teacher was the one against the religious pieces. As a result, her winter concert consisted of rather generic songs of peace and winter. She explained that although the principal supported the singing of religious songs in the school, she herself did not think it was right. She told us that one parent was even furious that there was no religion in the winter concert, because she felt that she was being forced to ignore the presence of her religion at Christmas. It's interesting when we see this argument somewhat backwards, compared to what it usually is.
In Caroline's post she mentions that the student was upset even though there were Hannukah and Kwanza pieces. It seems in these stories, and in case studies that we have read, that teachers bend over backwards so that nobody is offended and yet they are still criticized for their decisions. To some, taking religion out of the celebration of music is insulting. For others, their children's exposure to other religions is threatening. It's sad that we cannot look past these issues and enjoy the music for its beauty. In elementary school this issue is not as prevalent due to the fact that there is a wide variety of secular pieces for young singers. However, when applied to secondary education there are so many beautiful pieces that will be overlooked by middle and high school students because they are not allowed to be exposed to them.
It's sad to say this, and I don't know if I will even do this one day, but perhaps we just shouldn't do a winter concert. And instead do an alternative. Perhaps you could put on a concert that has a theme, that has nothing to do with Christmas or the holidays. Perhaps doing a concert a week after Thanksgiving or before Thanksgiving might be nice, because you could base it around Thanksgiving. Or you could do a theme around oldies music or something. I know this sounds weird because I don't think too many schools do this around the holidays, but if society continues to be the same as it is now, then WE might have to change instead. It's just a thought, again I don't even know if I could do this in my own classroom. It would feel a little weird to me listening to "Rock around the Clock" during Christmas time!!
I think in a situation like this you either have to have pieces for every holiday or have no music with religious connotation at all. It's hard because there is so much beautiful literature that pertains to Christmas, and there are a lot of students which are going to take this offensively. I know that Mr. Atkins was not trying in any way to hurt or exclude any of his students, but I think to be safe and if you are going to use sacred literature in your concerts that you need to talk to your students before hand. Express to them that you have chosen this music because of its musical integrity, not because of its religious text or connotation. If any of the students have objections than they should come talk to you privately after class so that you can work something out. It's not fair, but I feel like in a public school setting it's the only choice if you do not want to create conflict between you and your students, your parents or your administration.
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