Dawe, L. (2016). Fumbling towards vulnerability: Moving out of the familiar for music education’s sake. The Canadian Music Educator, 57(2), 22-24.
First and foremost, I really appreciated the author, Dawe, for how she wrote this paper. She had such a strong narrative voice that really allowed me to relate to what she was saying. As she told her own personal story, I found myself feeling more and more uncomfortable with the fact that I could relate to so many things that she said. She speaks of her time with music education, and how "[she] was able to get by and be successful as long as [she] did exactly what [she] was told to do." (Dawe, 2016, pp. 22). And I feel that I relate to that sentiment so personally. When I first started voice lessons, I was singing through a piece that I had learned when my teacher stopped me. According to her, I had no sense of phrasing or musicality. Of course, this took me aback. Before that point, just singing the right notes and rhythms had been the only thing asked of me. But now, there was so much subjectivity and artistry involved in conveying music, it made me uncomfortable. My teacher would tell me to try and figure out the phrasing and "feel" the music, although I longed for her to just tell me how to do it, so I could do the "right" thing. But what exactly is the "right" thing? Who decides what the "right" thing is? This article challenged that idea for me. Dawe goes on to explain that her comfort zone has always been in the teacher telling the students what to do. When she started teaching, she realized that she was always the person directing everyone else on how they were going to learn, which didn't feel right. However, doing it any other way would put her in a vulnerable, uncomfortable place, as this was the only way she had ever been taught music. Yet, despite these vulnerabilities, she began to tweak the framework of her teaching, which allowed for her students to foster their creativity and have some autonomy over their own learning, all for the benefit of the students, and even her as a teacher. What I love the most about this article is that the overall conclusion Dawe reaches isn't that there is a "right" way to teach music. She has a good overall grasp on balancing both the traditional and modern music education techniques. Not only that, but she allows herself to become vulnerable to her insecurities in a way that allows her to grow as an educator, which is something I truly admire. I'm glad she concluded that change doesn't happen through the students, it happens through the teacher and how they support their students. This willingness to take on responsibility really spoke to me, and I can only hope that I can be a teacher that receives the same amount of respect as I have for her.
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Carole PalattaoI'm an 18 year old studying classical voice at Western University. I'm also a hardcore mental health advocate, and I do creative writing on the side for fun!
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