When I first looked on Angel today and saw that a unit on fashion had been added, I was appalled. I detest fashion. I purposefully buy clothes that aren't necessarily "in fashion," rather, I buy clothes that will always work. I hate shopping, and the idea of having to buy new clothes every season to fit the latest fashions really terrifies me. In fact, fashion is a cause of a major gulf between my mother and myself. She'll buy me a shirt, or a dress, and it will be so horrendous that I'll never wear it. I'm sure it was "in fashion" when she got it for me, but honestly, it looked like a painting smock I would have worn in kindergarten. Or it was a tad too . . . revealing . . . for a teacher. She has since been outlawed from buying me clothes.
Now that I have that off my chest, I think I'll take a somewhat creative view on what fashion is. In the readings, it's been asserted that you can also look at fashion as a verb, the act of fashioning something. I'm going to look at it that way, and explore how I have fashioned my home. Not the inside, as I already explored that during the interior design unit, but the outside.
My home sits on a beautiful 3 1/2 acres. We have a pasture in front that is fenced in for my ducks and chickens, and their coop is on the side of the house. In between the house and the pasture is the old coop. This is where I'm raising this years' chicks. In the backyard, I have 2 beehives, 3 garden beds, and a turtle enclosure. I have 2 rows of different kinds of fruit trees, and along the left side is a row of vines - blackberries, raspberries, and grapes.
I'm not a landscape architect. Most probably would not consider what I've done to be the most beautiful thing I could have done. But it is compelling to me. Why? Because it's mine. I created it, planned and built the garden beds, put in the fence, built the coop, painted my beehives, planted my fruit trees. It is more the act of fashioning my home that is compelling.
What about education? I fashion lessons all the time. However, would it be more compelling to encourage my students to fashion their own lessons? To encourage them to ask questions, and direct their own learning? Of course, they have to have a certain maturity to manage this, both as people and as musicians. And they have to be motivated to do it.
I've already been working on allowing my students more choices. I encourage them to find fun music they want to play, to bring it to their lessons, ask questions on that. Because I've come to realize that any playing they do on their instrument is going to help them improve.
One thing I've been working on improving in my playing as well as my teaching is improvisation. In English, students are expected to be able to not just read the language, but also to write and speak in it, to analyze novels, hold discussions, and think of things on the spot. The equivalent of this in music is improvisation. If I can teach my students how to fashion their own pieces, would that not be more compelling for them? To be able to create their own songs, and have ownership. In addition, it will undoubtedly increase their understanding of music.
No comments:
Post a Comment