I feel that organizations such as MENC, or Silver Burdett put out simple lessons in hopes to inspire and spark bigger and better ideas in teachers. I feel that the hope of organizations is that teachers will take a simple plan, change and adapt it to their students/class and make it a valuable learning experience. The simple pop lessons on the MENC website are basic, teachers could go so much farther with them, and we discussed a few ways to do that in class. What I feel is the problem is the teachers. Teachers who rely on the book or website and don’t think critically are the ones who need to be reminded that lessons can go further than just what’s in the book. Possibly the book or website could suggest ways to go further, along with the simple lesson so that teachers know they have more options.

As critical teachers, we are constantly forced to re-evaluate ourselves as educators and as human beings. Especially with the articles that we, as music ed. students at Westminster, are asked to read we are constantly taking the ideas of others and seeing how they weigh in our minds, with our beliefs. We spend our class time dialoguing about how these ideas of others affect our way of thinking, or our beliefs. I feel that one's beliefs are a significant part of their identity, and that the thoughts and opinions of others are the main contributors of changing or maintaining those beliefs. We are forced everyday to re-examine how we really feel about something because of what other people tell us "the truth." It is hard to keep your identity constant in this kind of environment, but it is also not necessarily a negative thing. To have ones identity constantly challenged is a frightening thing. Middle schoolers tend to go through the "moody teenage years" when they start to realize that they have an identity and that it will constantly be challenged. Throughout our lives we will be pushed around by peer pressure, and by what is perceived as the accepted and popular norms, and our true identity is the underlying morals and beliefs that we hold constant despite that opposition.