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For those involved in the many disciplines of the Arts, we all love the arts in its various forms; visual, theatrical, literary, dance and musical arts. We form a community that exists with a hope for mutual support. And why wouldn’t we, we all see the importance of the arts. We all know that the ability to perceive the arts as more than simply objects is innately human. There are neurological and philosophical studies that have proven this beyond a doubt, and even UNESCO has articulated that the Arts are an expression of cultural freedom, which is a universal human right, so we even have both science and politics on our side when we say “the Arts are essential to our humanness”.
Nonetheless, the importance of the Arts in Community is often understated. I’ve heard on a number of occasions the argument that “the Arts create community, and community develops because of the Arts”, and this argument does us a disservice. It places an unrealistic expectation on the Arts to magically create a community simply by existing. Society is not an accident of the Arts. If we were to put a mural up on the side of the Royal Bank depicting a Nazi internment camp, we are not going develop into a community of oppressors of human rights. As a friend of mine said in his article about what the Arts are, the success of a society of a bygone era is usually judged by the diversity of their Arts, but that is because every society is consciously created. They are planned, and the Arts are an integral part of that plan. James Graves, in his book "Cultural Democracy", explains to us exactly what Community is. “Any group of individuals who share something, anything, in common, and consider themselves to have some allegiance to each other as a result, forms a community.” The Arts are a Community in High River, as you no doubt agree. What about High River on the whole? What does every person who lives in High River have in common, and consider ourselves to have some allegiance to each other as a result? The flood is no longer an appropriate answer, although it is still our best answer. “We are a community of flood survivors”. But not everyone in High River is. As people move in, move out, have kids, grow up, die, visit and depart, what will be their lasting impression of High River? After a while, it won’t be the flood nor will it be our resilient recovery, and then what will our community be? I said earlier that the Arts are part of a plan to building a community. That’s because the Arts in a societal view serves a public purpose, and is the only discipline/industry that consistently does so. The Arts build social capital, the “stuff” of culture. Allow me to explain with musicking, because that is my chosen artistic discipline. At one point in time we had an elitist view of what music was. It was an object, an artifact of historical or musical import. It was something to be enjoyed upon its own merits. It was even used as a tempering tool for society; one person in Saskatchewan explained that the purpose of boys bugle bands a century ago was to cure the boys of “slovenliness of speech”. To a certain extent, some of those views purvey. But music as an object doesn’t build social capital. How we music builds social capital. Music is in fact an action, be it the creation of that artifact, the listening to it, the dancing to it, or the understanding of some intended message. Even more, some people music by distributing it, selling tickets at the door, or designing posters for events. What that actually means is that music is a verb, not a noun. It is not an object, but an action. We don’t make music. We music. You can say the same of art. We don’t make art. We paint. We sculpt. We display. We art. You can say the same of theatre and dance. We don’t produce plays. We act. We design. We show. We move. We theate. We dance. In each of these artistic verbs, we commune. We interact with one another as artists, with audiences, with the larger community. We share. We message. We politic and we express. We don’t always do it the same as one another, and that is good because it allows for communication between differing thoughts. It is through this communion with one another that culture lives, breathes, develops and thrives. This growth occurs through the Arts, so an area that has consistent support for artistic diversity can build social capital and become not just a place where people live, but become a community. Consider that economically speaking, diversity and competition is good for a community. Consider that a community is also strong with people of different talents contributing to it. A community with the capacity for accumulating financial capital and human resources will be strong both in economy and talent. So too it is for social capital. As Graves says, “a society with a low capacity for accumulating social capital, one that stresses zero-sum games offering some members advantages at the expense of others, will be unstable and probably dangerous. Dynamic, progressive societies develop mechanisms to enhance the web of social capital.” Communities are planned. The Arts are an integral part of that plan. If we are to consciously create communities, it must be about developing those mechanisms to enhance the web of social capital in High River. It cannot be simply about planning events. It must be about creating or enhancing systems and mechanisms that increase our capacity for accumulating social capital. It’s going to take more than artists to do that; business leaders, politicians, educators and other community leaders need to be in the conversation. They need to engage the entire community in it. That’s what the Our High River Community Café is going to be about on February 10, 2016. If you want to be a part of it, come join us at the Wise Owl Café for Our High River’s Arts in Community event. Drop in sometime between 5 and 8 PM. Let’s find the sum of our specialties and come up with not just ideas, but solutions that we didn’t have before we walked in. Let’s consciously create community through, with, and in the Arts.
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I have a difficult time bringing up the future of music education in Alberta in a public venue such as a blog. The reason is rather simple; when I bring up issues affecting music education, I am almost always given a cold shoulder or, even worse, vehemently and violently opposed. Yes, it’s true, some music teachers don’t want me around. In Alberta music education, particularly instrumental music education, you don’t talk about things that can be spun to suggest that we take away from concert bands. I’m spurred onward by a reminder of what it means to demand the best of your profession. That reminder came in the form of a friend, Joe Bower, who worked tirelessly for a better education system in Alberta. He passed away at the beginning of this year, and left many inspired individuals wanting to carry on his torch. I can only hope to carry on his torch with the same efficacy he had, but I’d rather not do it alone. I know a great many teachers who will continue to advocate as he had in their fields of expertise. Mine is music education. So give me a cold shoulder if you must. But know that music education in Alberta is not yet complete, and with three decades of status quo, perhaps it’s time to address it. It has been proven time and time again that musical activity and understanding is a uniquely human attribute. Daniel Levitin in his book “This is your Brain on Music” discusses in one chapter the direct links neurologically between music and emotion, a uniquely human attribute. Sociologically, Carljohnson Anacin has discussed how each society has created for itself an artistic rhythm, a specific pulse developed in every human based on their cultural upbringing. Philosophers point out rightly that only humans can truly experience music’s purpose (although they don’t always agree what that purpose is), and that as a result music is essential to our humanness. Here’s the deal; politics has decided what subjects are core and what are not. Music is not a core subject in Alberta. Only recently (as in during the last 4 weeks) did the United States finally agree that music should be considered a core subject. But these are political entities that decide what is most valid in the development of human beings, regardless of what attributes actually constitute humanity. It’s not dissimilar to climate change deniers in political office; they can deny it all they want, but the fact is it exists. Politicians can avoid making music core, but it doesn’t change the fact that music is a unique part of our humanness. Just as easily as Donald Trump can offer a policy based on the idea that Muslims are bereft of humanity, policy can be implemented that suggests music is not an intrinsic part of what it means to be human. In both cases, the political entities would be dead wrong. Humans communicate with depth and creativity, conceptualize numbers and values, develop social norms, explore and innovate, stand on two feet and have opposable thumbs, and are omnivorous as products of evolution. As a result, the political entity that is our education system places language, math, social studies, science, and physical well-being as core elements of developing our young humans. For the political entity that is the Alberta Education system to not situate music as core to the development of our young humans is to deny them that aspect of their humanity. The implication of course then is that if music is essential to our humanness and therefore should be core to the education of our young humans, it should be instructed to all our young humans in such a way as to develop the musical aspect of their humanity. Not only that, but it should be instructed by people trained to teach it, just as language, math, social, science and physical education is. To be clear, there is a pointed difference between a musician and a music educator; you can be both, but it is faulty logic to assume that any musician can teach it. These assertions have major implications for music education in Alberta. First of all, only 10% of high school students participate in instrumental music programs, and even less in choral programs. What about our music education system prevents students from exploring this uniquely human attribute? Are there systemic issues that negate participation, either explicitly or accidentally? The answer of course is yes. Another major implication is that music cannot be taught by generalists who have not been instructed on how to teach music, much less generalists who have no musical training of their own. That is a call to our post-secondary institutions to ensure generalists know how to teach music, and to our education system to ensure that every school has a music specialist on staff. But the problem is nobody is talking about the fact that Alberta’s music education system has a race problem, a relevancy problem, a funding problem, and a professionalism problem. In fact, to suggest so is to label oneself as “against concert bands” (this is what a fellow music teacher accused me of being recently). The rationale for that label is for another blog, as is a deeper explanation of those problems. I’m not against concert band in Alberta’s schools. I like concert bands, and I’d rather have band available at every school where concert band is considered a relevant part of the community. I’m not against music in any shape or form in our schools; rather I want more music in Alberta’s schools. I’m merely against teaching one type of music in schools, much as I’m against teaching students there is only one way to solve a math problem. Alberta Education’s music curricula is approaching 30 years of implementation. I have no intention of idly watching music education stagnate and whither in a system that was built for a very different culture than exists in Alberta today. It is time to look at our school music programs and really question how well they help our young humans develop their ability to music. Is their in-school musical learning disconnected from what happens after the bell rings, or after they receive their diplomas? Or are they developing into lifelong musickers? As humans, it should be the latter. Some other Education Blog Posts Why I will never be an award-winning band director The Arts: Good for the economy ... Banks on it Just let me teach Parents should be freaking out right now - Tatlo Sources used in the writing of this blog
Anacin, C. G. (2014). Syncretism in rituals and performance in a culturally pluralistic society in the Philippines. The Social Science Journal. doi:10.1016/j.soscij.2014.08.005 Blacking, J. (1973). How musical is man? Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press. de Quadros, A. (2012). Music is essential to our humanness. (Y. O. Communications, Interviewer) Retrieved July 27, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7c1_LkJ0I4 Levitin, Daniel (2007). This is your brain on music: The science of a human obsession. New York, New York: Penguin Publishing Group. Myers, D. E. (2008). Freeing music education from schooling: Toward a lifespan perspective on music learning and teaching. International Journal of Community Music, 1(1), 49-61. doi:10.1386/ijcm.1.1.49/1 National Association for Music Education. (2015, December 9). More than 140,000 music educators and music supporters celebrate the passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act, elevating music as a stand-alone subject. Retrieved January 7, 2016, from National Association for Music Education: http://www.nafme.org/more-than-140000-music-educators-and-music-supporters-celebrate-the-passage-of-the-every-student-succeeds-act-elevating-music-as-a-stand-alone-subject/ Paynter, J. (2002). Music in the school curriculum: Why bother? British Journal of Music Education, 19(3), 215-226. Regelski, T. A. (2012, March). Musicianism and the ethics of school music. Action, Criticism & Theory for Music Education, 11(1), 7-42. Retrieved from http://act.maydaygroup.org/articles/Regelski11_1.pdf Wasiak, E. B. (2013). Teaching Instrumental Music in Canadian Schools. Don Mills, Ontario, Canada: Oxford University Press. Some other articles on Music Education Philosophy Alperson, P. (1991, Autumn). What should one expect from a philosophy of music education? Journal of Aesthetic Education, 25(3), 215-242. Elliott, D. J. (2009). Praxial music education: Reflections and dialogues. New York: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195385076.001.0001 Goehr, L. (1989, Winter). Being true to the work. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 47(1), 55-67. Koza, J. E. (1994, Fall). Aesthetic music education revisited: Discourses of exclusion and oppression. Philosophy of Music Education Review, 2(2), 75-91. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/40327074 McCarthy, M., & Goble, J. (2002, September). Music education philosophy: Changing times. Music Educators Journal, 89(1), 19-26. Small, C. (1998). Musicking: The meanings of performing and listening. Hanover: University Press of New England. Back in University, I had adopted the slogan “carpe nocht”. Thinking I was being relatively clever with Horace’s quote “carpe diem” and the approach to life the phrase espouses, the idea of seizing the night became more than what I ever thought it would be. You see, it was really just a way of justifying my desire to party all night long.
Little did I know that I would take it up as a mantra, and have it end up being a metaphor for my life. You see, to me, December 21 is not the longest night of 2013. Sure, scientists will talk to you about the winter solstice, and they’d be right. But other nights in 2013 have been far longer. The night following my wife’s diagnosis with pericarditis. That was a bloody long night. The night after we discovered the piano component of the High River and District Lions Music Festival had a significant scheduling flaw, and I had to review and reschedule 250 entries. That was a very long night. The night I discovered that I was no longer part of a profession that the Alberta Government was willing to negotiate with. That was a very long night. One of the longest nights of the year was June 20, a night I spent until 2 AM in the Blackie evacuation centre following one of the most significant events in Canadian history, the 2013 flood. What made it longer was the hour and a half drive to my parents’ place in the dark, wondering what Waterworld looked like. And the thing that made it even longer yet … the dreams I finally had once I did get to a safe and warm bed. The first night sleeping in my bed in my home in dank- and dead-smelling High River thinking about the thousands who still had no idea when they’d be returning home. That was an incredibly long night. The night after a massive hailstorm that almost wrote off my car trying to convince my boys they were safe in our home. That was a long night. The night I learned I had no classroom, and realized I wouldn’t for weeks, maybe months. That was a long night. The night after a meeting with business people in High River where I learned that one of our more prominent businesses was struggling to make even a tenth of their regular income, 5 months after the flood. That was a long night. No, December 21 is not a long night. Not even after an intense day of Christmas shopping is December 21 a long night. It does not compare to the Dylan Thomas kind of nights that we avoided going gently into this year. But through my “carpe nocht” philosophy comes one realization; after each one of these nights came a day. Each day brought new rays of sunshine, new hope. These days came because we wouldn’t go gently into that good night. My wife was very diligent in her recovery from her heart condition. I rescheduled the piano classes and made everything work for the festival. Teachers kept teaching. I helped wherever I could after the flood. My family, and many other families, worked tirelessly to clean up homes so people could return, and others who haven’t yet are still working hard to do the same. I found a hall to teach in while I waited for a classroom. Business people of High River are not hoping for handouts, they are working to return to success. Even our boys got involved in High River's recovery. In each case, we are all working to see a brighter day. Then, perhaps after we’ve seized the opportunity that night has given us, we can then seize the day. So, in this season of hope, I look back at 2013 as a very long night. And 2014 is going to be a very bright day. I know this, because it starts with my brother marrying a wonderful young lady, and the beginning of a new life together brings with it hope for the future. I wish all of you for whom 2013 was a long night to seize the night and the opportunities it presents. Don’t go quietly into it. Then, having seized the opportunities, may the future days be yours to take. Carpe nocht et carpe diem. Certainly when I heard about Mount Royal University cutting funding for their Arts programs, nobody should be shocked that I was upset. It took a bit of thinking after my last letter to really discern the big picture, though.
We should have seen this coming. We should have been fighting against it long before it happened. Of course, hindsight being 20/20, I shake my head in disappointment at myself for not seeing it before. Between this article from a 2004 edition of U of C's Gauntlet, the comments from Associate Professor Bill Bunn in this CBC News report, and the MRU's 2012-2017 Academic Plan (check out page 8, it becomes obvious there), the pieces of the puzzle fall into place to show the impending demise of the school's Arts programs. Arts Advocates should have seen it coming. They (we) didn't because we blindly believed every corner of Alberta also believed in the Arts. Now we are staring down the barrel of the gun, seeing the beginnings of the demise of Arts in Alberta. No matter the warnings, Mount Royal pushed forward, with it's main argument being reputation. Apparently a degree at a really great college is still only a degree at a college, and therefore graduates cannot compete in the marketplace. Forget the fact that the programs the college built its reputation on became tertiary the second they adopted the name "University". Basically, for the sake of a name, Mount Royal has turned its back on its past. But it's worse than that. As a result of the finite funding Cooney warned us about, these diploma programs have received the axe, and the wonderful diversity we saw in Calgary's post-secondary institutions got sliced with it. Certainly the cuts are the fault of mismanagement of our province's funding by the PC government. But that is not the only place the fault lies. Mount Royal got itself so pidgeon-holed on the idea of a namesake lending value to their programs that it forgot about the value of those programs. The PC government has mechanics in place to prevent the loss of those programs, but instead for the sake of having five universities in the province, it still let it happen anyway. Having five universities does not make Alberta an educational leader. It makes Alberta an educational elitist. We claim to have the best schools at any level. Thanks to these most recent cuts, and the pidgeon-mindedness of MRU and any other school considering cutting programs, we can't claim that any more. We may be able to claim the best at the highest level, but we leave all else behind. Alberta should not be considered great because we have the most highly educated people. Alberta should be great because we respect all people with all interests and all abilities, and we work hard to help each one achieve success and prosperity. In a PC Alberta, where funding is cut to programs that would open up that diverse prosperity because the government cannot manage their books, we will not see that wholly inclusive Alberta. I don't see MRU changing their mind, without changing years of their priorities. I don't see the PC's changing their tactics to our finances either. So what are we going to do to ensure the diversity of education in our province is preserved? Well, one thing we can do is find someone else to manage the province's books in 2016. The other is to help schools like MRU understand how important the Arts are by showing up to every performance the school has in support of it. The next concert is Mount Royal Kantorei on Saturday, May 4 at 7:30 PM. Show up, and teach MRU how important the Arts are to Albertans. Dear Board of Governors;
I understand that due to provincial funding cutbacks, Mount Royal University has had to make some difficult choices. I am very concerned about the direction Mount Royal University is taking with regards to its Fine Arts programming, and hope that you find other ways of dealing with inadequate funding from the current Progressive Conservative government On recommendation from the Vice President Academic, the school will be cutting its entire arts and cultural faculty, effective Spring 2013. This is in complete contrast to comments made previously by government officials about how important fine arts education is. We respect the difficulty of the decision you are faced with, but we ask that you approach the decision well-informed and with an open mind. The funding cuts equate to a complete loss for the school’s theatre and music programs. These are Mount Royal's only fine arts offerings. Of particular concern is the proposed cuts to the MRU Jazz Faculty. Mount Royal University is widely revered as the best two-year jazz diploma in Canada and unique in Alberta. I have a number of students who have benefitted directly from the Mount Royal University Jazz Program in particular, either as High School students attending camps, or as Post-Secondary students studying for performance. Many could attribute their success to the incredible leadership of Mount Royal University’s programs. Upon discussion with Vice President and Provost, Manuel Mertin, members of the Alberta Band Association (of which I am a member) were informed that although the Mount Royal University Program is "exceptional", it is slated to be cut due to its status as a two-year diploma program; although there were other two-year programs that were spared. It was also suggested that students wishing to study jazz at a post-secondary level could move to Edmonton and participate at Grant MacEwan. However, Grant MacEwan is not a jazz school and they do not have capacity to take all of Mount Royal University's students. In order for Grant MacEwan or any other Alberta institution to be able to accept the would-be-stranded Mount Royal University students, they would need to have seen an increase in funding from the government, which we know to not be the case. They would also need to adjust their programs to meet the high standard of excellence Mount Royal University has developed as a reputation. This equates to a loss of 120 student seats in theatre and music programs. Over the next year, this change will result in a loss of five full-time faculty members, two support staff, and nearly 20 part-time instructors, not to mention the programs' performance groups and theatre productions. It will obviously also have a significant impact on the mentorship of emerging artists on Calgary’s mainstages. It will also have an impact on the Public Education system who relies heavily on Mount Royal University’s leadership in jazz instruction. I sincerely request that you save the Mount Royal University Jazz program and let it continue to be the globally-recognized program Calgary is known for. Please note that I will also be sharing my dismay with the Ministers of Advanced Education and Finance as well as the Premier for putting you in this situation. Sincerely, [Original Signed] Joel Windsor, B.A., B.Ed. Music Specialist, Notre Dame Collegiate, High River, Alberta President, High River and District Music Festival Association CC To: Premier of Alberta Liberal Party of Alberta Advanced Education Critic Wildrose Party Advanced Education Critic New Democratic Party of Alberta Advanced Education Critic Member of Legislative Assembly for the Highwood Constituency President of the Alberta Party This message appeared in the program of the High River and District Lions Music Festival in 2013. Dear Arts Advocates,
We are pleased you have joined us for this year’s High River and District Lions Music Festival. We are so pleased to be surrounded by so many passionate musicians, parents, teachers and advocates. Through an event such as this, it becomes quite obvious the value music has in our society and in our lives. Thank you to the parents and teachers who advocate for their students so vehemently. Thank you to the students, for refining your craft and sharing it with us, and for inspiring not only those who follow you, but also those who lead you. Thank you to the solid foundation of volunteers who organized this festival and made it happen. Thank you to the Sponsors who put their money where their heart is and by doing so make our Arts community stronger for it. Perhaps most especially, thank you to the members of our audience, the receptors of our musical communication, for being the most basic and necessary form of Arts Advocates. True profit in Arts and Culture is not measured in dollars, euros or yen. It in fact is immeasurable, although its effects can easily be seen in the eyes of every student, teacher or parent who has been exposed to it. Those who cannot package that experience and sell it have a difficult time understanding what electrifies us. Yet we press on, knowing that intrinsic value is not always meant to be understood, just experienced. Music itself is temporal. Truly emotive music must be performed and experienced; no digital device can emote and express the way a living and breathing musician and audience member can. With our High River and District Lions Music Festival, we see how that happens in each performance. It is for this reason we work so hard to produce this festival, to continue to see that every year, and be inspired by it. It should be noted that we are in desperate need of Arts Advocates, who are willing to put their time where their values already reside. Our Board is in need of extra support, as in its current state, our Festival organization is not sustainable, and we so desperately want it to be so to the benefit of our young musicians. As John F. Kennedy said over 50 years ago, “to further the appreciation of culture among all the people, to increase respect for the creative individual, to widen participation by all the processes and fulfillments of art – this is one of the fascinating challenges of these days”. We ask that you seriously consider helping us take this challenge on. We need teachers, parents and supporters, young or old, to take this challenge on. We need you. Please consider joining us as we seek to provide venue for the inspiration our young musicians offer. Your life, and ours, will be enriched by your efforts, and you will make a real and lasting impact on the lives of our young musicians as well. Thank you once again for supporting young musicians simply with your presence, and please continue to share with all those around you how rich you truly are because you have music. Contrapuntally yours, Joel Windsor Click here to see the letter in PDF Format.
Dear Mr. Johnson, I would like to thank you for your message, but it does raise some concerns for me. I am concerned about how you collected the email addresses of teachers you sent this letter to. Certainly you sent this to my school board email account which is public domain, but your reference to a “list” of email addresses concerns me, and makes me wonder how you came to get my email address. It suggests that you had access to some unknown database of emails and used it without the consent of the owners of those emails. The suggestion that you are taking ownership of this “list” also concerns me. I know I certainly did not provide any email address to your office for the purposes of this communication, and had I actually been invited to do so, I would not have provided you with my work email address. However, in the spirit of keeping a constructive and collegial relationship with you, I would like to invite you to continue to communicate with me. I would prefer you use my personal email, so as to separate my political discussions from my professional discussions. I am sending this email using that address. It is my expectation that you develop a new database where permission has been given to you to communicate with teachers as citizens through private emails, and that I am included in that new database. It is also my expectation that my privacy is assured, and that no person other than the Minister of Education (or their representative) uses that database, and by extension, my personal email account. Aside from my concerns of Privacy, I do have some other concerns I wish to raise with you. First, due to the projected losses in Budget 2013, it seems that every department is looking at cuts, including Education. It is my view that any budget cuts were fully preventable, and that many budget cuts could be deemed unnecessary should the revenue and tax structure of the province be adjusted or changed, but that is for discussion with the Finance Minister. It has been rumored that the Alberta Initiative for School Improvement is one of those significant programs facing the chopping block. I hope that this is indeed just rumor and nothing more. However, if AISI is cut, many of the province’s best innovations in teaching will disappear with it. If you truly value the innovations we have brought to classrooms around the province (as you suggested in your email to teachers), you will also value the AISI projects, and continue to fund them. If you cut AISI, you are looking at as many as 350 teachers losing their jobs. These teachers were hired specifically for the AISI projects their divisions are undertaking, and therefore have no classrooms waiting for them should their jobs disappear. AISI funding cuts will also remove Professional Development funding for every other teacher in the province as well. You can almost guarantee that with that many teaching jobs lost, remaining teachers will not be allocated time to innovate and improve their practice, and with their Professional Development funds drying up, those innovations may all but cease. This is not the way to encourage our Education system to remain among the best in the world. Another concern I have is that in your email of December 12, 2013 to board chairs, you seem to be trying to subvert the local bargaining process. Local bargaining participants are the locals of the Alberta Teachers Association and their respective School Boards. The Minister has no role in such negotiations, and to insert yourself into such discussions could easily make it difficult for teachers or School Boards to feel as though you are supportive of that process. Your suggestion that our province should consider merit-pay for teachers is also troublesome. Being a co-chair of Inspiring Education, where discussions have occurred surrounding incentive pay, you have undoubtedly been exposed to piles of research indicating the ineffective and destructive nature of merit-pay in Education. Mentioning it now inserts questions that have no place in our Education system. It is confusing as to why an Education Minister would do this. With regards to the prescriptive curriculum, you are absolutely right, it does need to be addressed, but this is old news. Since 2007, your department has been working on updating and improving the Arts Education curriculum. The new curriculum under the original proposal was set to be rolled out this year, and even though your department went back to the drawing board in 2009, it seems as though you are still at that drawing board. It used to be that teachers had significant input into curriculum development, but the reason this curriculum review went back to the drawing board is because they were not involved appropriately in the process. While I agree with your statement that prescriptive curriculum must be reviewed, I would love if that statement were converted into action. The Arts Education curriculum review needs get back underway again in a fully transparent way, so as to avoid having to go back to the drawing board again, and teachers must have significant involvement in the development of the curriculum, as we are the professionals in both Arts Education content and Arts Education pedagogy. In many areas, Arts Education is the reason some of our students come to school. The Arts breathe of life, culture, character, peace and community; all the things in the “unwritten curriculum”. We need an Arts Education curriculum that provides the time, space and opportunity to explore these aspects of our society and our students’ lives. By extension, we need our Education Ministry to set curriculum and resource development as a priority to ensure that such a curriculum exists. I can understand your frustration with the fact that tripartite agreements broke down in November of 2012. I am quite frustrated with this too. It seems to me that the ATA proposal was more than reasonable, and considering the pinch you are currently experiencing with a poor projection of Budget 2013, a 0% raise this year and next would look rather favorable (especially when looked at through the lens of our previous contract, which would have teachers receiving an approximately 4% raise this year alone). However, with the concerns I’ve already mentioned it is understandable how a person can have a difficult time taking you at your word. You explain that you would like to try to reduce low-importance administrative tasks to deal with teacher workload, but it is hard to believe that will actually happen. I hope you can understand that, from my perspective, hard caps on time is a perfectly reasonable trade-off for not having to worry about your budget in a time when you have to consider cuts. However, none of that matters now, as we are in local bargaining, where you can almost be guaranteed that hard caps will be discussed, and so will raises. As such, your involvement in the bargaining process is not appropriate, no matter how frustrated you are with the past. I would prefer to work constructively with you. To that end I ask that you remove yourself completely from the local bargaining process, giving the School Boards the autonomy they have earned through the electoral process, and giving teachers the opportunity to focus on classroom conditions, not politics. I also ask that you review any consideration you have given to cutting AISI funding, and really evaluate AISI’s long-term benefits. Lastly, I ask that you re-double or re-triple efforts to improving the curriculum of all Arts Education. I would be happy to provide you with input at each of step of these processes. Sincerely, [Original Signed] Joel Windsor Much like any other worldly role, many people measure themselves by their success. Success as a band teacher can be measured in many things; trophies, plaques, students who continue to study music beyond high school, and recognitions from colleagues, to name a few. While I'm sure being the best was never in their plan, band teachers who get such awards still leave big footprints behind. I don't expect to achieve those kinds of accomplishments. For a parent wanting their child to receive the best education possible, any band teacher who thinks they will not get awards is somewhat defeatist, but you must understand why I say so. These awards are given to band directors whose students perform the best, have advanced the most, or are the most skilled musicians. I learned this while in Anaheim both in 2008 as well as in 2011. I don't teach those students.
In Anaheim, the biggest trophy, nearly as tall as I, was given to a school that brought hundreds of students. It was an aggregate award, for having the most highly accomplished musicians. In 2008, with my paltry 20 students, that would have been impossible to expect that trophy. The next largest trophy was given to a school that produced the most polished performance. I met some of the students at that school as well as the band director, and to be polite, their demeanor and attitude was just as polished as their performance. So I conclude that in order to receive such awards, I must teach at a very sizeable school, where the pool is much deeper from which to siphon talent. Either that, or I must teach at a school whose mission is to produce the best artists, where students must audition in the same format as professional orchestras do, knowing that if they do not exceed exceptional expectations, someone else will gladly sweep in. Such schools also set their schedules so that only the most academic (and therefore hardest working) students can take music classes. I am flanked by such schools in the Foothills, so of course the possibility for me to teach at those schools may come up. At this stage in my career, I find it difficult even considering teaching at such locations. I don't want to teach the best to be better. Please don't misunderstand; it is an honorable task for some teachers out there, but not me. I don't believe my job to be to produce the most amazing musicians possible. I believe my job to be to teach people to love music. So my Senior Concert Band ends up being a class of misfits in the musical world. I have an oboe player who loves music so much, she'll even play baritone in a jazz band that is comprised mostly of students three years her junior. I have a trumpet player who sings, plays piano, and would pick up a cello if I asked her to. I have a tuba player who, even though most of her friends couldn't wait for a spare study block, chose to play band in her Grade 12 year, and even tried out my audio class. I have a bass clarinet player who is now playing baritone saxophone simply because I asked him to in order to help the band be successful, and who without band may not have any other acceptable outlets. While not a single one of them is the best musician in High River at their age levels, I will put their passion up against any other students' in a heartbeat. So I don't get the big awards with the glitz and sparkle. I don't have plaques lining my band room walls, and full trophy cases of mementos of Festivals Past. But if you look in my school, you will see an award mounted on the wall that is about 9 inches by 12 inches large, which is basically an etched brass plate. I was given it, along with fellow band teacher and friend Sarah Lyons, and our students who joined us on an unforgettable journey in May of 2011. "'The Spirit of Anaheim Award' is given to the group who best exemplifies the spirit of music education, who best represents their community, and who is a model of passion for music and life." Not awarded to Mr. Windsor. It was awarded to his students. My students who received that award all agreed that none of those big trophies mattered. That little plaque meant way more to them than those lumbering towers. If I'm doing my job right, I will never get such an award. That award will always be given to my students. Recently, I was asked a few questions about teaching music, and the challenges of doing so. I was asked this in conjunction with Alberta Arts Days, a celebration of Arts in Alberta. One of those questions was "what is the most difficult concept to teach?"Some of my colleagues chose musicianship. Others chose appreciation. I find those easy to teach, if you have passion for the subject matter, and I most definitely do. The most difficult concept to teach is Risk-Taking.
Every time a student picks up an instrument, they are taking risks. With Math, English, and most other courses, mistakes are inaudible, private ones. If you make a spelling mistake, it is not announced to the whole world. If you don't line up the decimals, it doesn't sound awful with the neighboring student. With music, this is not the case; an out-of-tune note, inaccurate rhythm or strange dynamic is easily heard, and can be quite embarrassing. However, beautiful music cannot be created by being safe and quietly playing, hoping your notes aren't clashing. Therefore, teaching risk is very difficult. Especially with teenagers, who are at one of the most insecure stages of their development, risks can be hard to try, without peer judgement. The fact is that I cannot teach students to take risks. All I can do is set up an environment of acceptance, including accepting that nobody is perfect, that errors will be made, and that they must be made in order to learn how to succeed. As 4-H suggests, learn to do by doing. So in my classes, no student is allowed to make a mistake without laughing about it. By giving students permission to find the humour in errors, it takes away permission to get angry at themselves for their mistakes. It also gives students permission to try new things, and see just how awful it can get. By extension, it adds a positive note to the errors, and rather than chiding a student for mistakes, encourages them to try again, try again, and try again. In my classes, no student is allowed to laugh at another's mistakes until they laugh at it first. Instead, each student is responsible for helping their neighbor correct their mistakes. If a note was inaccurate, a gentle reminder of the correct fingering is expected to come from their neighbor. If a dynamic was wrong, their neighbor is expected to point out the correct dynamic as a reminder. A reminder is all that is needed, because the students already have the knowledge and skill to be able to do it. In my improvisation classes, students are required to take risks. There is no better place to take risks than behind closed doors. Once on stage, the risks are much less risky if practiced behind closed doors first. And because these classes tend to be smaller, the support level from their peers tends to be deeper as well. We want to train our students to be risk-takers, creative minds, and therefore better stewards of change and improvement in our society. Celebrating mistakes has to be one way to do this, because mistakes are always the first step to success. In music we do this, not by design, but as an intrinsic part of learning to perform. As Walt Disney once said, "we don't look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward." People learn music because someone inspired them to. Students gain skill at music because they have someone there to guide them. Students gain appreciation for music because a parent supported them. Without any of these three, music would be very little indeed.It is for this reason I get to say thank you to all the parent support I saw last night at the Fine Arts Parent AGM. We have a new executive with the organization, and almost every role is filled, even after adding more positions to the board. It is obvious to me that the Fine Arts are alive and thriving, and I believe very strongly that parents have much to do with that, so again, thank you.
All students should have instruments now. As such, all students should have their instruments in class, too. Should they not, students must be prepared for it to affect their marks. Check http://www.ndcfinearts.com/ for details on when startup clinics occur for your student, as they begin immediately! Should your student be found without the supplies they need for their instrument by startup clinic time, I will be ordering what is needed for you. This is an administrative task I'd rather not have to worry about, so please make sure your student is well-stocked. Again, thank you parents for all your support. I can see this is going to be an amazing year! |
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