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.
posted by Liz @ 5:26 PM
2 Comments:
I agree with Liz in saying that our beliefs help form who we are, what we do and how people see us, but also I feel that it is out experiences through life that shape us into who we are in the future. Where we were born, where we went to school, our experiences in classrooms, our activities outside of school all shape who we will eventually become. I think that is why the idea of “experiential” learning is so important to the ideals of Critical Pedagogy. Students have already become people by the time we teach them at any age. They have had life experiences that will shape how they act, learn and grow. It is important for us as teachers to think about that as we plan lessons. Also, if we are going to teach through experience we must be cautious that the experiences we are giving are positive and valuable to our students. The experiences we give them in a classroom will shape them and their love for music for a lifetime, every moment is critical for the music experience of students to be a success.
Being a critical teacher indeed forces us to not only be constantly evaluating ourselves, but also evaluating the effect that we will have upon the students. Should we not allow ourselves to evaluate both sides, I believe that we fail ourselves and our class. It is important that we change with the situation and the times. That does not mean that we follow every education fad that comes along, as we can be prone to do, but that we do self exams on our teaching in order to discover what would be best for our teaching and best for our students.
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