I was raised in Hunterdon County, New jersey. It was, and to a slightly lesser degree still is, somewhere between a rural and a suburban community. When my family moved there, there were still many farms. Sometimes the school bus would get stuck behind a tractor. So my upbringing had little to no exposure to urban areas, let alone the schools in those areas. My first exposure to an urban area other than the nicer areas of Manhattan where relatives lived came in my senior year of high school, and it was still very minimal. I participated in Jazz for Teens at NJPAC. It was five month jazz education program. My exposure to an urban area consisted of looking at Newark by way of McCarter Highway while on the way to NJPAC. While in the program, I did meet other students from urban areas such as Elizabeth and Newark. However, these students and I shared a love of jazz and music, and there was little discussion about other things. So it seemed to me that there was little difference between them and I except for where we lived or how we dressed.
My experiences as a musician and music teacher have made me feel that I have a common bond, however slight, with any person on the face of the earth. I have not met, or even heard of, a person who's life has not been positively affected by music in some small way. Music is common to all cultures and all people. This makes me believe that I would be able to find some common ground with students in an urban school. This may be, and on closer inspection to some degree most likely is, ill-founded naivete. It could lead me to think that I understand the students and their community more than I do because I listen to some of the same music, and I could come off as gratifying. I realize that music alone would not be able to bridge the significant gaps in culture and background between my students and I. My experience at Jazz for Teens and with countless other musicians and music lovers since has instilled in me a sense of community with anyone who enjoys music as much as I do. This is surely an oversimplification of things.
Conversely, this belief in the universality of music could also, and I believe will, help me to form closer and more meaningful bonds with my students to some degree regardless of where I teach. I have met many musicians who have said that music was the only thing that kept them going in hard parts of their life. In some extreme cases it has saved lives. Music helped me get through high school. It was the only thing that made me go to school in the morning, and the possibility that I could study music in college was the only thing that motivated me to to well in my other classes. Music has given me and countless others something to live for. I am not implying that I would be able to turn any student into someone who wants to go to college for music or dedicate their life to it. However, when daily life is a struggle, as it is for many children in urban environments, music can give students something look forward to, to be proud of. I have seen music invest many of my private students with self-esteem and I see no reason why this is not possible for students anywhere.
The media, particularly Newsweek magazine and The New York Times, has been the other big influence in my view of urban education. Most of these articles have been about crumbling schools and corrupt or inefficient educators and the fight of a small handful of teachers and administrators trying to change things. Many have been openly critical of the status quo of the practice of teaching. Tenure in its current form has come under fire. It is seen as a protector of teachers that can't teach and make no effort to improve. Despite my choice to become an educator, my experiences as a student tend to lean me towards this view. I have had many educators at all levels who are obviously teaching the exact lesson plans they used fifteen or twenty years ago, and make every effort to go home as soon as the bell rings. They offer little or no extra help to students who need it, and they exemplify "going through the motions." I feel that these teachers do not deserve their jobs or the protection that tenure gives them. Why should they have almost guaranteed job security in such an important profession? Doesn't the fact that teachers have such an enormous responsibility hold them to an even higher standard in job performance than other professions?
In my experience, only a small handful of teachers act like this. In contrast, most media coverage of urban schools seems to depict this problem as endemic to all urban areas. When I read articles about Michele Rhee, for example, Washington D. C.'s schools appear to have an overabundance of these teachers. Ms. Rhee is depicted as someone fighting against an entrenched bastion of people fighting to keep their jobs and the status quo. They also depict most of Washington D.C.'s schools as poorly maintained and sometimes dangerous. In many cases, the articles generalize these conditions to most or all the other urban school districts in the country. Our urban school systems are depicted as hopelessly behind, their progress handcuffed by teacher's unions and others that wish to see the status quo maintained.
The reality is certainly more complicated. There are definitely many passionate, dedicated teachers in urban areas, and not all urban schools are so severely under-maintained. I must admit, however, that this type of media coverage is discouraging. It does not make me want to teach in an urban environment. It appears that I would be fighting a losing battle against drugs, poverty, poor facilities and even other teachers. Would it really be worth it to put in so much work, especially in an area (music) that would likely get little support when the schools are so concentrated on other, admittedly more important things? If I am able to succeed in an urban school would the sense of fulfillment be enough to compensate for my natural dislike of cities?
These are just some of the questions I hope to have answered or at least explored in this course. My personal dislike of cities has always been slightly puzzling for me because I have had some of my most fulfilling personal experiences in them. I understand how an urban area can foster the type of environment for great artistic achievements. I have also been inundated with media coverage of how terrible urban schools are, and how many problems they face. Are things really as bad as they are made out to be? Is my belief in the transformative power of music founded in reality, and does it apply everywhere, to everyone, as I believe? Hopefully this course will at least give an idea.
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