Teaching music is very difficult. When you teach a group of 5th graders a song, you are teaching lyrics, notes, rhythms, what a song is about and how to perform it. The work of learning of song is different for each student and requires quick and creative differentiation. Is teaching music harder that teaching math? Not necessarily, but it does have its unique challenge. In a middle school band, a single student’s mistake can affect every other students’ performance. Teaching students about this, and how to work hard together, in unison is unlike anything else in education.
While teaching music is difficult, it doesn’t feel treacherous or personal. Talking to people about music is something that is not uncommon. While there are times when I’m talking about musical concepts, I experience flashbacks of negative experiences around music from my life, this rarely happens, and it’s not negative to the degree of trauma. If there were many of these memories, it would be unlikely that I would be a music teacher.
Teaching about diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI), and social justice is much harder to teach than music. It’s not the teaching techniques that are more difficult. I actually find it more difficult to utilize and cultivate my teaching back of tricks as a music teacher more than my toolbox as a diversity practitioner. It’s the subject itself and what teaching bring up in my memory and in my heart that makes it difficult to engage in as a teacher.
Most people have no problem telling you about their favorite song, or of an early memory with music. This kind of conversation isn’t going to rock Thanksgiving dinner or make strangers feel uncomfortable. Asking people their earliest memory of being aware of their racial identity or asking people to reflect on their personal bias will make many people very uncomfortable. People are uncomfortable talking about issues related to race and social justice. People, parents and students alike are also uncomfortable with teachers discuss about these issues in the classroom.
I’ve taught many songs that I have not performed myself. However leading activities related to DEI that you haven’t done yourself and fully unpacked? Not a good idea. Unpacking your own experience with levesl of oppression related to race is essential in discussing racism because if you aren’t aware of the complexity of your own feelings, bad things can happen. Difficult memories that are triggered in talking and hearing about these topics you may lead you to misspeak or break down. Not being able to carefully and deliberately speak about these topics is in most people’s thinking worse than not talking about these topics at all.
The worst thing that happens in a music lesson is that my students aren’t very productive in learning a song. The worst thing that happens when I’m teaching about DEI issues is that I misspeak, offend someone, and I lose my job.
It’s taken me a great deal of time, work, and practice to feel comfortable discussing issues related to DEI in my classroom, but I’m not completely there. For example, the topic of hearing loss is not something I can talk to my students about yet.
My feelings and experience with my son, Ethan’s hearing loss is not completely processed or understood. There’s something too raw inside of me related to hearing loss to teach about. Someday I will get there, but I’m not there yet.
I’m not giving up.
We must find a way as educators to do the work to teach about DEI and social justice in all of our classrooms because it is what our students need, and our society needs more than anything else from us as educators. If you aren’t ready as a person and as educator to do it, that’s okay. That is where you are in your journey, but you have a responsibility, and a duty to get moving through that journey.
Your students are waiting.
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