Self-Assessment

I feel that I have learned a great deal about urban education this semester. I would say also, that I have learned some things about myself. I will be honest when I say that I came into the class thinking that I did not see myself as having a desire to teach in an urban setting. I think that this is partly because my only idea of education was my own experiences growing up in a suburban town. When I imagine myself as a teacher I imagine myself teaching in the type of setting that I grew up in. I think that after this class the unique challenges of urban education have been more clearly defined, but that this is not really a negative thing, because the potential rewards have been more clearly defined as well. Concerning what I have learned about myself I feel that I could be capable of teaching in a urban school and that it is something that I will really consider doing.

Assignment

2. If we look at the families in Unequal Childhoods, we see that only four of the families could live comfortably, meeting the self-sufficiency wage: the Williams, Tallinger, Handlon, and the Marshall families. The other families would have a very difficult time residing in Essex county. The brindle and McAllistor familes would not be able to meet their basic needs with the public assistance they receive. Also the working class, Taylor, Driver, and Yanelli families, would have a very hard time because they do not meet the self-sufficiency wage but would not likely receive public assistance.

3. If we look more specifically at the struggles that the Brindle and McAllistor families would face, we can see that there will be issues with food, housing, transportation, health care, and childcare, to name a few. Living in poverty means that it is very difficult for them to meet their basic living needs. Neither of these families can come close to meeting the self-sufficiency wage of 39,299-40,413.

4. Students come from different backgrounds, and inevitably will have different issues that effect them. If a student spends each day worrying about where they are going to sleep that night or if there is going to be food, maybe school isn't on the top of their list of priorities. I think as educators we must be sensitive to this idea.

I am planning on becoming an instrumental music teacher. Playing an instrument can be expensive. the cost of accessories such as strings, reeds, valve oil, etc. can add up. When I was in school these things were not provided for you it was the student's responsibility. If I am going to be teaching in a setting where the cost of these things will be a big concern for my student's families, I might try and find a way to lessen the expense by trying to get the school to cover it or as much as can be budgeted.

Inquiry Project Abstract

This paper was a study of the effects of instrumental study on students musical identities. We have found little discussion of this subject within the music education community. We interviewed four students in the instrumental music program and the instrumental music teacher at East Side High School in Newark, New Jersey. We found that studying an instrument has significant effects on students’ musical identities. Music became more important to the students, they liked a wider range of music, and they demonstrated an ability to analyze and evaluate music on several different levels once they began studying an instrument. Students’ music listening experiences changed from a passive activity into one in which the students actively analyzed and thought about what they heard. Based on our findings, we feel the subject of musical identity is one which deserves further research and discussion within the music education community and the education community as a whole.

Inquiry Project Findings

Based on our student interviews, we found several themes common among all students. All of the students stated that they liked the music they heard growing up. They all said that music was played often at home, almost constantly, and they expressed a positive attitude towards this music. What they heard growing up also had a large influence on what music they listen to now. For example, when we asked Oliver, a saxophone player, what he would listen to if he could only listen to a single song for the rest of his life, he said it would be something that was “old school meringue,” which he listed as something his parents played in the house growing up. The music students heard growing was a factor in developing their musical identity.
When speaking about what kind of music they liked, it was important for students to be able to relate to something in the music. We asked Charlie, a percussionist, if their was any music he didn’t like. He said, “Country songs aren’t (pause, laughter)...‘cause I’m not from that side, down there, so I really don’t know [about it]...the songs has to relate to life.” Oliver said he liked a particular rap musician because, “He says things that happen in real life, that needs to be fixed.” The musician raps about issues that Oliver has personal experience with, and Oliver connects to that. In addition, we found that studying an instrument had allowed students to relate to a broader range of music. Based on what they had learned they were able to find value in different music. When we asked Oliver if studying an instrument had affected his appreciation of music, he said, “I used to hate jazz, classical, everything like that. Now, I’m more into it than the other kind of musics.” Beatrice, a piano player, said, “You find something different in every type of music that you can learn with.” We asked her if she thought she would feel this way without having studied an instrument, and she said, “No. Never, never in my life. You see, music really opens your eyes.” In other words, studying an instrument gave them more music they can relate to, expanding their musical identities.
All students stated that music was very important to them, and that it had significantly grown in importance when they started studying an instrument. When we asked Beatrice if she listened to popular music, she said she did not, and added, “I’m not ashamed of who I am.” This shows that she equates the music she listens to (or her musical identity) with her personal identity. Music is important enough to her that she uses it show who she is. Peter, a guitar player, said he snuck his iPod into school, against school rules, so that he could listen to music. Listening to music was important enough to him that he was willing to risk disciplinary consequences to do it. Reflecting this sense of importance was the fact that the students all seemed to share a sense of pride in being musicians. When we asked Peter if music was important to him, he answered by saying that he was in a band and that they would soon be recording. It was obvious from the way he brought this fact up that he took great pride in it. All of the students said that music was not this important to them before they began studying their instrument. Interesting to note is the fact that the importance of music seemed to develop relatively quickly after beginning study of an instrument. The students we interviewed had been studying their instruments ranging from two months to four years, and they all stated that music had become more important to them since they had started their studies.
Studying an instrument also changed the way the students listened to music, regardless of their instrument or how long they had been playing. Listening to music was no longer a passive activity, but one in which the students were actively analyzing what they were hearing. This was exemplified in several ways. When listening to music with vocals, students tended to shift their focus from the lyrical content to the musical content. For example, Charlie stated outright,“Now I don’t even care about the lyrics anymore.” He went on to elaborate that his attention was focused on the drums in any particular song. This increased attention to the instrument the student was studying was common among all students. For example, when we asked Peter what he liked to listen to, he said anything “...with the guitar in it,” and Oliver listed primarily saxophone players when asked the same question.
All the students also saw listening to music as a sort of tool to help them improve their musicianship. For example, Beatrice said, “...when I listen to different people playing, this is like, ‘Oh, he plays like that, and I like that part, so I want to try to do it just like they [did].” When she’s listening to music, she hears things that she wants to duplicate because she believes it will make her better. Oliver has an interest in jazz, and when asked what he likes about listening to it, he said outright that it makes him a better improviser. Peter took it one step further. We asked him if he payed more attention to guitar players since be began studying guitar, and he said, “Yeah, I want to be better than them... I listen to them...and I wonder how I can make that sound better.” So he not only wanted to learn from what he listens to, but improve upon it.
Students found music and learning an instrument to have a range of value outside of the musical domain. For example, Charlie said studying an instrument was a good experience:
I see it as...it takes time from after school, to keep the kids out of the streets. And then if
you like it...this is like another sport, really, I see it as. You can go far. There’s a lot of
colleges they told me, for it.
He saw studying an instrument as having multiple benefits. It had social value by keeping kids out of the streets, and thereby out of trouble. He was also able to connect it to educational opportunities, in that he saw it as a means to gain college admission. Beatrice said, “I think that music really helps you build your character,” referencing the story of a friend’s brother. The brother had trouble in school and acted out, and when he started studying an instrument, he stopped acting out and improved in school. Through her eyes, studying an instrument is not just studying an instrument. It has broader benefits that include personal betterment. Peter saw learning to read music as something that could help him become a professional musician, as it would allow him to play a broader range of music, as well as play with more musicians.
What we found to be most interesting was that all the students showed an ability to analyze and evaluate music on several different levels. Students were able to use analogies to describe music, something indicative of higher-level thinking. Charlie, who plays football, likened playing an instrument to playing sports. One of the first things he mentioned was the need for communication in both. This is significant because Charlie had only been studying his instrument for about 2 months. Communication within music is a fairly advanced concept. It is something abstract, beyond the technical aspects of playing an instrument, and is therefore much harder to grasp. Because of this, it is an idea that is not usually introduced until students have reached a fairly advanced degree of musicianship. He also said, “Reading the notes is just like reading a playbook,” in that certain actions must be executed at certain times. In this instance he is drawing parallels between concrete visual aspects of sports and music. Because of his ability to address both the concrete and the abstract, Charlie was able to build an analogy with a high degree of depth and detail. Beatrice spoke about how studying an instrument has given her a more concrete, logical understanding of music. She said, “...this teacher, he started teaching me some stuff... and then you say ‘oh,’ now I know why I do this... It’s like one plus one is two. There’s an explanation for music also.” Music has gained a more logical meaning for her. She is able to analyze music and communicate her thoughts about it on an intellectual level. Her use of an analogy shows that she truly understands what she is discussing.
The students were also able to evaluate music on several different levels. In addition to a purely aesthetic evaluation, they evaluated music on a technical and intellectual level. Charlie said, “You can’t have a good beat but then the lyrics is whack.” He also said good lyrics with a bad beat won’t work either. He is evaluating several different components of music. He is isolating components of the rhythm and the lyrics and evaluating them independently, as well as how they become a cohesive whole. To form an effective composition, not only does each individual component have to be good, but they must complement each other enough. Beatrice, describing a piano player she liked to listen to, said, “He’s just like going up and down the piano all the time... It’s like when you see it, you’re like, shocked... There’s like, a limit, and he passed the limit.” She is saying that the music is of high quality because of the technical facility of the instrumentalist. The reason she likes the music is because she understands what is required to play at that level.

Inquiry Project Progress

We have been exploring the question "How does music shape students' identities and how does this musical identity shape their experience in music education?" To this end, we interviewed four students and the instrumental music instructor at East Side High School in Newark. And as we are coming at this from the point of view of music educators, we have tried to find existing literature on this subject within the music education community.

The first thing we've found is that there is an extreme lack of discussion and research on this subject within the music education community. There has been some research done on students' listening preferences, but none we could find that asks about the role music plays in students' lives. Discussion with teachers and academics has revealed mostly an assumption that music would be important to students in a high school music program. This is perhaps because of the fact that in the great majority of high schools in New Jersey, students entering high school have had instrumental music in elementary or middle school. This is not the case at East Side High, however, so we were interested in exploring how important music was to high school students just starting an instrument.

One thing that was common to all the students we interviewed was the large role of family music preferences on their own preferences. All the students expressed a generally positive view of the music they heard growing up. All of them also told us that music was listened to a great deal in there homes. They all used the phrase "all the time" to explain how much music was listened to in their homes. This phase was also used to explain how much they listened to music themselves.

Another thing we were surprised at was the variety of music students listened to. Based on discussions with the teacher, we assumed all of them would listen to hip-hop or rap the most. This was not the case. All the students listened to various Latin musics. One student liked classic hard rock and"screamo," a very hard style of rock music. Three of the four listed jazz as a music they listened to, and two of them listened to Western classical music.


Based on the limited research we were able to find, high school students tend to show stronger opinions about music than students in grades 4-8, which are the grades when most students begin playing instruments. All the students we interviewed expressed strong opinions about music, especially when talking about music they liked. However, they all said that playing an instrument made them like and appreciate music more. Moreover, playing an instrument fundamentally changed the way they thought about and listened to music. While they all stated that music was important to them before they started playing, all the students said that music became an even larger part of their life once they started playing. This was true whether they had been playing for four years, or two months.

Another thing that was striking was how they described listening to music. They all talked about it not just in terms of opinion or emotion, but analytically. They all talked about differences and similarities between different musicians or styles, and about how the music was put together. Listening wasn't just a passive activity, it was doing something. They all attributed this to playing an instrument, and said that they didn't think about music like that before they began playing. One student even said he doesn't listen to the lyrics anymore! So it was clear that playing an instrument had fundamentally changed these students' musical identities. While we went in asking how their identities affected their experience in music education, it became clear that music education changed their identities. I feel that this doesn't happen in such a striking way to students who begin playing earlier in life, or that it at least isn't as evident. This could be why the question rarely comes up within the music education community.

Inquiry Project Introduction

Music is an enormous social, cultural, and personal force in people’s lives. Often, the music people listen to is tied to who they are and how they see themselves. In other words, music becomes a part of a person’s identity. The main purpose of this paper is to look specifically at how music shapes urban high school students’ identities, and how those musical identities are affected by their experiences within an instrumental music education program. We defined musical identity as being composed of several factors. The largest factor is the level of importance music has in a person’s life. Within the notion of importance is how a person views music in relation to their life. If a person sees music as related to many aspects of their life, they will have a strengthened musical identity. This means that musical identity can range from being a minimal, near nonexistent part of a person’s identity to being almost synonymous with personal identity. Also contributing to musical identity are factors such as listening preferences, the amount of time one spends listening to music, and the degree of enthusiasm a person has for listening to and seeking out music.
We approached this question from the point of view of music educators and as such were interested not just in the cultural and societal implications of the question, but more specifically how musical identities play out within the framework of students learning to play instruments. We were looking to see if an understanding of students’ musical identities can help music educators teach more effectively or if it changes the way an instructor teaches. We were curious about this because we have found a relative lack of discussion or research about this question within the music education community and literature.
We interviewed four students in the instrumental music program and the instrumental music teacher at East Side High School in Newark, New Jersey. The instrumental music program at East Side High and at most other high schools in Newark are unique within New Jersey in that most students entering the program have not had instrumental music instruction before coming to high school because of a lack of feeder music programs in the elementary and middle schools. This unique situation gave us an opportunity to see how beginning music education at the high school age was affected by students’ musical identities. This was particularly interesting because high school students tend to show stronger opinions about music than students in elementary or middle school (LeBlanc, Sims, Siivola, Obert, 1996), which led us to believe that music tends to be a larger part of their identity than it would be at an earlier age (although this is a question beyond the reach of this project and one which we did not explore).

Inquiry Project

For the inquiry project I will be working with Pat Sutor. We have decided on an overall focus for the project. Pat and I are both in the MAT program for music education. Our inquiry project will focus on music education. We are specifically interested in the impact that a greater emphasis on popular music can have on student interest in school music programs. There has been much research done regarding the importance of arts education for students. We are not interested in contributing to this research but exploring how to better increase student interest in arts education. Our hope is to conduct a small case study at East Side High School in Newark. East Side High offers us an interesting example because of two factors. One, the school system does not offer instrumental music until students reach the high school level. And two, the music teacher Aril Ocasio, regularly uses popular music as an educational tool. The fact that instrumental music is not offered prior to students reaching the high school is significant because it creates great pressure for Mr. Ocasio to recruit students and to maintain student interest in the various ensembles within the music program. It seems that part of his success may be attributed to his introducing popular music into the performance repertoire of the ensembles.
We are planning on interviewing Mr. Ocasio as well as a sample of students from his classes. Although Pat and I have settled on a general topic we have yet to decide on specific things such as the interview questions. We will most likely have different ideas about the questions in this blog. I feel that this is a good opportunity to see where each of us is headed with the topic and gives us the opportunity to use any discrepancies that might arise to further focus our topic. Some possible questions I am considering asking Mr. Ocasio are:

What are some of the challenges you face as a music educator in an urban school?

Why do you regularly arrange popular music songs for your ensembles? / What is your motivation for doing this?

In your opinion does the knowledge that a student will get to perform music that they listen to regularly have an impact on their desire to be part of an ensemble?

In your opinion was popular music a genre, or style of music that was emphasized in your training as a music educator? If yes, why do you think it was? If no, why do you think that it wasn’t?

Are you a fan of popular music? What do you listen to?

Some potential questions for the students include:

What is you favorite type of music?

What is your favorite artist/band?


How often do you listen to music? When is your favorite time to listen to music?


What is your favorite piece of music that you have performed in school? Why do you think you liked it so much?

Why did you decide to join the school music program?

Did you know that you would get to play songs such as _________ (popular music piece performed in the past, or maybe the piece the student cited as their favorite if they stated a popular piece) when you joined? If you did know, did that influence your decision to join?

This is clearly far from a finished project, but it offers a jumping off point from which the investigation can be focused. I am examining this through the lens that arts education in very important in the lives of students and that it is our job as educators to find a way to motivate students to participate in the arts. The example of East Side High School can offer some good insights into the usefulness of studying popular music to increase interest as well as a means to exploring the importance of popular music in the lives of the students.

Annotated Bibliography

Fiese, J.K. & Decarbo, N.J. (1995). Urban Music Education the Teachers’ Perspective. Music Educators Journal, 81(6), 27-31. Retrieved March 22, 2009, from JSTOR database.

This article focuses on the responses of twenty successful music teachers to four open-ended questions about their experiences and backgrounds in teaching music in an urban setting. Many of the answers were similar in addressing the challenges of teaching in an urban setting.
The first question dealt with how the teachers viewed their undergraduate/graduate courses in preparing them for teaching in an urban environment. According to the authors, “The majority of the respondents felt woefully unprepared to teach in the urban setting”. Many felt that their training prepared them to deal with the “ideal” student and missed the complexities of handling the issues of students from differing social and economic backgrounds.
The second question asked the teachers to offer examples of one or two techniques or approaches that they have utilized and have found to be particularly effective. There was a range of responses, but some of the overlying themes touched on the importance of experience and ultimately experimentation to find what works the best. Also, it was pointed out that having the respect of the students and control over the learning environment is paramount in achieving any level of success.
The third question asked, what factors the teachers felt contributed most to their personal success. “Several teachers identified various support networks of teachers, supervisors, mentors, and others that helped them meet their goals.” Others cited their continued educational studies through, professional clinics and conferences.
The final question asked if the teachers might offer some observations for improving music education in urban schools. Some of the responses pointed out the need for programs that addresses the needs of low-income students being created and integrated within the curriculum. Also it is suggested, “ Having all of the constituencies involved in dialogue, rather than parallel monologues, for the advancement of the students’ music education is perhaps one of the central features of successful urban school music programs”
Overall this article offers an insightful glimpse into the realties of music education in urban schools. It offers input directly from teachers involved in the action of teaching music everyday, and achieving successes in doing it.

Cultural Identity

Culture is of great significance when approaching an understanding of learning. It is through culture that we formulate our identities as individuals as well as members of society. More often than not it is through the lens of our culture that we view the world. Ultimately, culture creates for us, a series of expectations regarding all aspects of our lives. This is very significant in evaluating the way that students learn and will learn. When we analyze this further we see that we might gain the ability to account for some of the shortcomings of our educational system as well as foresee potential problems that could arise. Therefore, exploring this idea of cultural and the role that it plays in education, serves to aid a host of players within the educational arena including, students, parents, teachers, and administrators. As a future educator it is quite clear that there is a lot to gain in exploring this idea further. In this entry I would like to explore initially exactly what culture is. We can explore some of the main factors that shape it. After we have looked at what shapes culture we can explore the impact that culture has on a persons views regarding, race, class, gender, sexuality, and religion. From there we can examine the impact that my culture has had on me as a learner and how this can be applied to others. Finally we can look more deeply at the role of cultural in the classroom. We can look at how culture creates expectations between students and teachers and how problems can arise when those expectations are not met.
What is culture? Culture is comprised a many factors that make up our identity. A big factor is ethnicity. Every group of people has their own set of traditions. Also religion plays a big part, many of the values that a group has can be a product of their religious beliefs. Regarding religion, we are mostly talking about moral values, Though shall not kill, etc., We can also include the values a culture might have concerning things such as motivation or life goals, in other words what the cultural view is regarding purpose in life, what pursuits are worthy ones and what pursuits are not worthy ones. Regarding urban education, we have seen the problem where education is at conflict with cultural dismissal of the importance of education from both family and peers.
An important aspect of culture is that it encompasses not only what makes us who we are but also how we will view others. Ultimately because of the values and traditions that exist, expectations are created concerning aspects of the world. In certain cultures women are viewed as being inferior to men. It is therefore expected, that women will not pursue things such as education. An idea such as this viewed from an American cultural perspective seems absurd. This isn’t to say that there is no gender bias here within U.S., there is still some progress to be made, however I think most people agree that women are just as capable as men, more so if you count the whole multitasking thing. Culture has a big impact on shaping our identities, both individually and collectively. We decide who we are and where we belong with in society. If we look at the example of a culture that regards women as inferior it is easy to see how this could have the effect of causing a women within the culture to underestimate her abilities. Also In this instance the women’s culture has dictated to her, her place within society. She has been allocated to being below the status afforded to men. Gender is not the only thing affected when viewed through the cultural lens; we also see how it impacts the views of race, class, religion, and sexuality. Religion plays a big role in dictating what is “appropriate” regarding sexuality. Religions such as Catholicism, which was how I was raised, state that homosexuality is a sin against God and wrong. I personally do not feel this way about homosexuality. We might consider an instance where we have a wonderfully effective teacher who connects to his or her students, keeps them motivated, engaged, etc., but is a devote Catholic and views homosexuality as wrong. What happens when this teacher has a homosexual student? This is a tricky problem and it raises the notation, can anyone ever really be neutral with regards to others? This is an important question for an educator who is most likely going to encounter views and opinions that differ from their own. The answer is probably not. Culture is powerful and it is through it that we see the world, however people have the ability to change their views. One step to dealing with this dilemma is at least being aware of it and trying to be conscious to what our own cultural views are.
My upbringing and cultural identity is one in which education is extremely important. I was always expected to perform very well in school. I’m still expected to perform well. For me the expectation was such that there was never a question about finishing high school and going to college. My grandparents did, my parents, did, and I was going to as well. I went to Catholic school through 5th grade. In 6th grade I went to public middle school. When I got to the public school I rebelled a lot, which I credit to the stifling strictness of the catholic school. I started smoking cigarettes, and I tried drinking and smoking pot. I did all the things I wasn’t supposed to do. Interestingly though, for me the importance of school as I stated was drilled into me. Therefore, despite my rebelling I never stopped doing what I needed to do in school. I always received very high grades because that was how it was supposed to be in my mind. The pressure of the importance of school was so great that I couldn’t escape it, so much so that I never even thought about not doing well in school as an option. When we look at the instance where a student has cultural pressure to not do well in school I can understand how significant the challenge is to go against the strength of that cultural pressure.
The last idea we can look it at is the role of culture in the classroom. We can elaborate of the idea of culture creating expectations. Within the classroom culture creates expectations for the students of the teacher as well as expectations for the teacher of the students. We find the potential for problems when these expectations are not met. An example that we saw in class is one in which a student in an urban school does not know what a yacht is. There is a level of expectation that everyone knows that that is a boat, but a student who grew up poor, within an urban environment may have no idea because they have never seen one or even heard of one. An obvious expectation for students is that they speak English. What about an immigrant child who has just come to the U.S.? They will not be able to meet this expectation. Another example regarding language is the expectation that the student’s parents can speak English. What happens when they cannot understand the important documents that are sent home regarding the child? Further still, what if the parent speaks English but can’t read? With all these examples we see how there are expectations that are created within the school environment and how easily problems arise when the expectations are not met.
After exploring all of the notions we see how important culture in creating a person’s identity both individually and collectively as a member of society. Culture dictates that rules, beliefs, and values, serving as a lens through which a person views the world he or she lives in. Culture also serves to create expectations regarding the person themselves as well as expectations of others both within and outside of a particular culture. This fundamental component of a person’s existence is crucial concerning education, especially with regards to understanding the pressures and needs a student will have to be successful in their learning. As a future educator I can take this knowledge and use it as a tool to prevent the problems that arise when expectations are not met, blurred, or missed between my students and myself.

Questions about urban education

How are the arts, specifically music viewed, treated, etc. in urban schools?

I have not had any experiences with urban schools. I attended a small suburban school. In my particular school, the music program was something that was held in very high regard. When I imagine myself in a few years as a teacher, I naturally picture teaching in a suburban school where the music program receives decent funding and overall is viewed by the students, faculty, parents, and administrators as being a fairly important program to have.
After some brainstorming here are some questions that I would like to explore.

In urban schools what are the views of:

The students?

The teachers?

The parents?

The administrators?

Out of all of these players how exactly do they view the arts? Is it considered unnecessary compared to the other issues that students in urban centers need to face?

This is something that I would imagine to be the case. The arts are usually brushed aside in many schools. My school experience is most likely not the norm when it comes to the arts.

Can the arts be used as a tool to engage students? I personally think the arts are important for enriching the lives of any student. I would like to see if music can be a used to enrich the lives of students in urban centers.

Some other questions I have are related to being a teacher in general in an urban school.

What does it really take to be an urban educator?

Is this something I want to do?

Do you have to be some kind of super-teacher to do this job? If so am I cut out to do this?

If the system is so flawed do you need to know how to beat it or get around it in order to succeed? If so why is it like this and what can I really accomplish as one teacher against the system?


Hopefully i will be able to answer some of these questions by the end of the class. If I can it will not only help me decide if urban education is something I want to do, but I think it will also help me gain a better understanding of being an educator in general, wherever I end up teaching.

What Shapes Our Schools

What are the major influences that shape schools? A possible contributing factor affecting what schools are like is public opinion about what particular schools; urban, suburban, and rural should be like. This idea extends past the schools to an overall vision of how people perceive the culture surrounding the particular areas. To explore this concept we may explore some of the factors that shape the dominant views of American culture. Including the idea of a romanticizing of the America’s rural past, the rejections of urban centers, because of the conflict with America’s vision of it’s past, and finally explore the implications of these conflicts regarding the problems that affect urban centers and schools.
American culture often constructs it’s identity in the past, romanticizing the old simple life. Urban centers conflict with this cultural identity of the rural American past. Urban centers are heterogeneous entities, with big minority and immigrant populations. They are associated with industrialization and are the not green spaces, directly contradicting with the cultural vision of America’s past as a homogenous entity, comprised of white Anglo-Saxon, Protestants, living the simple life in the wide-open spaces of America. Copland, the great American composer defined his sound, the American sound with the use of the wide-open interval of the Perfect fifth. This notion of the boundless open-spaced America is undoubtedly engrained in the American psyche. In contrast to this openness, the urban center is a place that is dense and full.
We can find some significance in this rejection of the urban center and see how it has contributed to the formation of the suburbs. Families in essence get “the best of both worlds” the proximity to the city, for work and the green, country spaces for their children. The suburbs are regarded as safe places for children to receive their education. This has caused white families to leave the cities and in effect contributed to the re-segregating of our schools. It is interesting to see how some of the problems that affect urban schools can be attributed to the cultural differences between the dominant American culture and the cultures of the minority students in urban centers. Because if this conflict the needs of students in urban centers are not being met. Students are forced to chose between adapting their own cultural identities or having to reject education entirely.
These are just a few thoughts relating to what factors shape our school. We should recognize that how our schools are shaped is greatly impacted by the cultural identity of America, and in the particular case of urban schools, the conflicts that urban centers present with this American cultural identity.

How Education Is Represented In The Media

The media undoubtedly has a large impact on reinforcing people’s stereotypes, if not shaping them, regarding education in various urban, suburban, and rural school settings. We can generalize some of the stereotypes specific to the different school environments and try to find some examples of actual films, songs, TV shows, and news stories that perpetuate these stereotypes.

Suburban Schools:

Suburban schools are usually portrayed as a places comprised of many different cliques, composed of varying groups of the “in” and the “out kids”. More often than not real issues that pertain to all schools such as violence or teen pregnancy are completely omitted and serious issues such as underage drinking and drug use are glorified.

Urban Schools:

Urban schools are indefinitely portrayed as failing schools comprised of bad teachers and worse students. Compared to suburban school life, which is presented as being entirely devoid of serious violence, urban school life is represented as revolving around it. Students must cope with broken homes and the constant threat of violence. Interestingly in a suburban paradigm drug use might be represented as the carefree passing of time with friends smoking marijuana. In contradiction to this an urban environmental representation might show the “streets” side covering the dealers and gangs that procure and sell the drugs.


Rural Schools:

Depending on how “rural” we want to get, a one room school house in the mountains, or a small town in the middle of Pennsylvania, revolving around a sports program, we find some variations on the portrayal of education in this type of setting. A general stereotype that is applied to anything rural is a romanticizing of life as being at is most simple. The inhabitants of the rural community are simple people who are shown to have a greater understanding or appreciation of life because of their simple existence.

Examples

Suburban:

Film: Mean Girls

Fits perfectly into the mold of suburban school life where the most popular girls rule the school.

Music: “Rip her to shreds”

This is taken from the Mean Girls soundtrack. The song future supports the plot of the movie about a caddy girl and the call from the less popular girl to take her down.

Television: 90210

This again follows the mold showing the interactions of different groups of students. The major concerns of the students center on sex and fitting in.

News: Suburban Schools Reject Metal Detectors

This story tells about the resistance of parents and students to install metal detectors in their Washington DC school. This is very interesting because here is something that doesn’t fit the Hollywood version of suburban school life, needing metal detectors.

Urban:

Film: Dangerous Minds

This film tells the story of an outsider coming in to reach the students. It is perfectly aligned with the stereotypical urban school myth.

Music: “Gangsta’s Paradise”

This song is taken from the dangerous minds soundtrack. The song supports the idea of how central violence and gangs are to the lives of students in an urban school.

News: FIFTY YEARS LATER
Desegregating urban schools

This article talks about all the problems that are associated with urban schools. The article talks about an effort to study the lives of the students outside of school to account for their poor performance. It does seem as if blame is being placed on the students rather then considering the educational practices in relation to the needs of the students.

Rural:

Film: Songcatcher

I have not seen this film but from reading the synopsis it appears to enforce the stereotype of the simple life. The musicologist is able to find preserved folk songs, handed down over time, which we could possibly say are symbols that represent the larger theme of life in its simpler, better form as having been preserved.

Music: “Down in a willow garden”

This song is taken from the “Songcatcher” soundtrack. Fitting with the simple life is stereotypically a closeness and inevitably, a greater understanding and appreciation for nature.

News: Rural Schools

This article outlines how public policy is wrong in the eyes of the author when it dictates closing smaller rural schools and consolidating them into larger schools.

Comedian's take on Hollywood's version of urban education

I thought I would share this. He uses some strong language but it is bleeped out

Bill Burr: Why Do I Do This?

Bill Burr - Dangerous Minds

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Frames of Reference

When I sit and reflect on what the idea of urban education means to me, I am struck first by the fact that it is something that is entirely foreign to me. I grew up in the small suburban town of Verona NJ, attending the Verona public schools system, a predominantly white school system. In regards to the notion of a frame of reference for urban education, I in truth have no true frame of reference. It is not something that I have had any experience with in my life. My background and upbringing are undoubtedly shared not only by some members of the Curr. 523 class but obviously by countless others as well and curiously enough, despite my apparent detachment from urban education, I, and others with my similar background do in fact possess many ideas about urban education and the factors, issues, and circumstances connected to it. I will attempt to explore some of the potential significance of my ideas regarding urban education by laying out some specific examples of beliefs that I hold regarding urban centers, schools, teachers, and students. After citing some specific examples, we can explore the beliefs regarding impact that may be had concerning education as a whole as well as the implications for formulating the type of teacher and professional I hope to be in the near future. Finally, we can examine the origins of the beliefs and discuss their importance.
People hold many beliefs and it is safe to say that that the word belief is not always synonymous with the word fact. This being said, I do have specific beliefs about urban centers, schools, teachers, and students and but it should be stated that anything I offer is in its purest form simply belief, stemming from a host of sources but in the end not being claimed to be fact in any way, supported by anything other than my preconceived notions. However, it is from this very fact that it is not fact that we gain the greatest potential benefit. By reflecting on these beliefs and exploring what thoughts I have concerning this area I can ultimately approach teaching armed with the knowledge of my preconceived ideas and use that knowledge to make myself a better educator. I offer myself in doing this self examination, the opportunity to weed out any misconceived ideas that may exist.
I can begin listing some of the beliefs I hold first by stating a belief regarding all students. The belief is that every student is unique and comes to the classroom with his or her own unique background, encompassing ideas such as different cultures, beliefs, skills, desires, and goals. As a result of their own unique circumstances it becomes clear that every student will possess their own unique set of needs to ensure the success of their learning. This is true regardless of where the student is from and what type of school they are attending, suburban, rural, or urban. The needs of a student in a suburban school are going to find some overlap with those of one in an urban or rural school but are going to have those that are specific to their particular situation.
When I think about urban centers there are a few ideas that spring to mind. I think of big cities and the many factors and conditions inherent to cities and city life. I immediately think of negative factors such as high density or over overcrowding, high crime rates, and high unemployment rates. However, my thoughts are not contained solely to the realm of the negative but in fact carry over to the positive conditions that are also inherent to cities such as cities being a source from which incredible art springs forth, attributable to the rich melting pot of cultures that reside in cities. I can attribute these feeling to my being a musician possessing a degree in jazz studies. It is clear also, that as a future music educator there exists great potential for drawing on the various cultures to enrich any type of musical instruction that I might provide.
The next idea to be reflected on is urban schools and the teacher and students that make up the institutions. My initial thoughts are that they are susceptible to many of the same problems that carry through from urban centers. Problems like drugs, violence, and gangs. I believe these schools also suffer from high dropout rates, poor test scores, and high turnover rates for teachers. I feel that there are unique pressures placed on the students residing in urban centers and is no surprise that the pressures of urban life carry through to an urban school. We find issues relating to identity in which students from various backgrounds may have certain ideas regarding education. For some of the students they may view education as something that does fit into their personal identity. They may feel pressures from their families and peers to think of education as unnecessary.
Upon gauging these thoughts I, at first, might be inclined to label the schools by saying they are “bad” schools. I am probably not alone in this initial assessment of the schools as “bad” it is an easy label to give. It is also easy to see that by labeling the school as bad it becomes easy to follow with “bad” labels for the students and teachers of the schools as well. What needs to be realized is that looking deeper into the situation we see that it is not a matter of having “bad” students, or teachers, or ultimately a “bad” school but that it is “bad” policies that dictate practices in the schools that are “bad” concerning the needs of a particular school. In fact we need to discard the “bad” label in seeing that a policy or practice might actually be successful when applied to one school and therefore see that when unsuccessful in another it is, by better description, an incompatible policy. I stated earlier every student is unique concerning the needs they have for their education and as of now, policies are in place that attempt to offer an all-encompassing assessment of students from every aspect of life. The students in rural, urban, and suburban schools do not have the same needs and therefore cannot have the same educational policies applied to them. The policy makers are, in most cases, similar to me in being completely removed from life within urban centers, or schools. However I feel it does not mean that only individuals from urban centers or schools can be successful in creating educational policy for students. It means that the policy needs to be changed to reflect the differences of the needs of students based on what their unique needs are.
Where can the source of my beliefs be found, where do they stem from? Interestingly enough I believe a huge factor is the media. The issues surrounding the schools, especially in the wake of policy such as “no child left behind,” are issues that receive a good deal of news coverage. In addition, there have been a variety of movies portraying the story of someone coming to a failing school and saving the children, being the one that finally reaches the students and is able to help them realize their potential. Undoubtedly, this has created a false Hollywood version of urban schooling, and a false sense of what the problems are in these schools. Movies like this serve to perpetuate the very prejudice idea that, as stated, the schools are “bad” and therefore the teachers must also be “bad” and in order to help the students a “good” teacher from outside of the urban setting must come in to save the day.
After considering these points, it is clear that every school and every individual student has unique needs for their educational success and the practices and policies of education need to reflect this. Because of this generalized policy and practice are most likely going to be unsuccessful in addressing all of these needs across racial, cultural, gender, and economic lines. Every school in every setting will confront teachers and students with its own set of challenges and by addressing them, the chance for better learning becomes possible. Taking all of this into account I can strive to structure my future classroom to be one in which I am aware of the individual needs of my students and able to understand the type of needs they have specific to what type of school environment I am in thereby increasing the learning potential of my students. It is clear that when a education in faring unsuccessfully despite the initial ease of placing blame on the setting, teachers, and students the blame belongs to the policies that either don’t account for, or outright prevent the means by which educators can address the needs specific to their school locale.