There are a lot of things that I think are problems in music education today, one of the biggest things that I have seen recently is the attitude of students. While I know that this is not the same case in all schools, I recently went to my old high school and observed a period of choir. The town that I lived in is made up of a lot of 'upper class' kids who seem to always get what they want. The attitudes of some of these students during choir was offensive, they did not treat the teacher with respect, talking back without even thinking about it. While I know many people would say that the teacher is not commanding their respect, from spending years in that school system, I can honestly say that some of these students act like this with ANY teacher (or any adult for that matter). I don't really understand what the deal is with students today, it seems like they believe that rules don't apply to them. It seems like it is getting more and more common for students to behave how they want to. Is this the fault of the parents? The students themselves? Administrations and teachers that are too lenient? How can teachers take these attitudes and reverse them if these behaviors are being learned at home, where their parents answer to their children?
posted by Ben @ 11:25 AM
3 Comments:
My high school choir also had a good number of students that were extremely disruptive during class. Judging from my experience, this disrespectful behavior is much more common in music classes, especially choir. Many students take music classes because they need to have some sort of arts elective, or just simply to fill up time in their schedule when they don't know what else to take. These students simply do not take the class seriously, and it is incredibly difficult for the teacher to teach when some of the students in the class consider choir a free period.
I think that this is an issue that doesn't necessarily have to do class. If the students don't respect the teacher and they know they can possibly get their way by disrepecting the teacher, they're going to do it, regardless of whether they are 'upper class' or 'lower class' students. Also, I'm sure students were being disrespectful and disruptive way before the students of today. There are always people that believe that the rules don't apply to them, so I'm sure that this has always been and this will always be an issue. It is also very hard to blame any particular person when a student is having behavioral issues. It must be addressed on a case by case basis. It is impossible for one teacher to resolve all the behavioral problems with the students in their classroom, but I'm sure it would be very helpful for the music teacher to look into why this student is behaving this way. While it easy to place blame and label the student as a problem, the teacher should find out what is going on in this student's life and try to figure out what could be causing this behavior. The teacher will be much more well-equipped to deal with the problem once he or she becomes informed.
I think that attitudes are a big problem. I also went back and observed choir at my high school over break and the attitudes are atrocious. My school is somewhat the opposite of Ben's though. My high school is in Allentown, Pa and is about 70% minority and lower class. These students were always disrespecting the teachers while I was a student there. But, perhaps it is because I have gotten used to the amount of respect we treat our professors with here, or it has gotten worse. Students just do not want to learn. I feel like you can never teah anything to some one who is not willing, but how can we do our job if it seems that most of the students are not willing to learn? There are and will always be those students who love learning and become friends with the teachers. But it seems that the population of those kinds of students is diminishing. What can we do to stop this? I know that selecting music and class material that connects to their world will attempt to keep them interested but even then, if they do not want to learn what can we do?
High schools are becoming more strict with the organization of policies. When I was in high school they began to limit our hall passes to 40 places a month. Once those 40 places were filled you couldn't go out again until next month. Being a music student, band lessons would take up one third of my hall pass. When students get out of line or cause problems, the school thinks that holding a tighter grip around the students would help elimiate all problems. I tried to visit my teachers in the very same high school I graduated from and they wouldn't even allow me into the school. They wouldn't even allow me to put invitations to my senior recital in the teachers' mailbox. As seen in the previous comments more and more students are just not caring. Is this "jail like" approcah benifiting or disturbing the student body?
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