Entitlement
Oct. 30th, 2009 08:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annissamazingI think I had my first brush with entitlement in the college atmosphere last night during Music class. We are studying Southern Asian music, specifically India. The teacher was trying to explain the concept of raga, which has no succinct equivalent in English. He equated it to mood and to demonstrate the concept in a way that we would understand, he played major and minor chords on the piano. In Western music, we tend to equate major keys to happy music and minor keys to sad music. In the same way, a raga sets the mood in a piece of Indian classical music.
He asked if anyone had questions and a woman in the back of the class said that she was really confused about it. I can understand her confusion. It's a new concept that's difficult to explain. But she got really rude about it. "I don't understand this at all and you're up there playing the piano and saying, 'This is happy. This is sad.' It doesn't make sense. What is actually going to be on the exam?!"
She continued for several minutes and I got the feeling she was being deliberately obtuse. Teacher caught me rolling my eyes. I began to understand why he is slightly bitter about his occupation. He's got a lot of things combining to make the perfect storm. Firstly, Music as a World Phenomenon is an LER with no pre-requisites. He's trying to teach ethnomusicology to people with no real knowledge of geography or sociology (or music, for that matter). Secondly, the class satisfies the music requirement and diversity requirement (two birds, one stone). Lastly, many people consider it a dummy class that requires no effort. So when they don't "get" what he's teaching, the students get irate. So, again, I understand why she's confused, but I have major issues with how she handled her frustration.
Her attitude said, "I have no interest in learning about music from other parts of the world. Just tell me what's on the exam so I can get out of here."
On the plus side, I got him to play a clip from "This is Spinal Tap," and then we discussed the "Paul is Dead" urban legend for about 10 minutes. And that was really fun!
He asked if anyone had questions and a woman in the back of the class said that she was really confused about it. I can understand her confusion. It's a new concept that's difficult to explain. But she got really rude about it. "I don't understand this at all and you're up there playing the piano and saying, 'This is happy. This is sad.' It doesn't make sense. What is actually going to be on the exam?!"
She continued for several minutes and I got the feeling she was being deliberately obtuse. Teacher caught me rolling my eyes. I began to understand why he is slightly bitter about his occupation. He's got a lot of things combining to make the perfect storm. Firstly, Music as a World Phenomenon is an LER with no pre-requisites. He's trying to teach ethnomusicology to people with no real knowledge of geography or sociology (or music, for that matter). Secondly, the class satisfies the music requirement and diversity requirement (two birds, one stone). Lastly, many people consider it a dummy class that requires no effort. So when they don't "get" what he's teaching, the students get irate. So, again, I understand why she's confused, but I have major issues with how she handled her frustration.
Her attitude said, "I have no interest in learning about music from other parts of the world. Just tell me what's on the exam so I can get out of here."
On the plus side, I got him to play a clip from "This is Spinal Tap," and then we discussed the "Paul is Dead" urban legend for about 10 minutes. And that was really fun!
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no subject
Date: 2009-10-30 01:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-30 03:17 pm (UTC)At UW, the equivalent class is nicknamed "Clapping for Credit." It has I think ten class sessions, you talk about basic structures of music and so on, and you have to provide proof that you've gone to at least 4 performances of live music during the quarter. Class comes with free or discounted tickets to some on-campus classical performances to make sure people can get to 4.
But while I'm glad they're making ethnomusicology accessible, this leads to awful cluelessness. I'm sorry the teacher didn't know how to shut her down.
fun at school...
Date: 2009-11-01 07:40 pm (UTC)