Leading Social Change

This will be a brief “entry.” 

From my alma mater today (April 9, 2019), University of the Pacific, I received an advertisement for a presentation by an award winning teacher.  The topic:  CONVERSATION ON LEADING FOR SOCIAL CHANGE.”  I guess it is important to know the presenter is 37; blonde; causasian; heterosexual; married; with children.  Guess that is important information.  

As you know, I have taught high school since 1989. I am biologically old enough to be her father.  I feel old.  Certainly old enough to have been her high school teacher.

I never went into teaching music to … have a conversation about social change.  I never thought I was going to be a person who would be encouraged to lead social change, but that shows … I am getting old.  My time is coming to an end.  

All I wanted to do and still do is teach music and teach students:  RESPECT, RESPONSIBILITY, DISCIPLINE.  Conduct awesome ensembles made up of teenagers.  I didn’t want to get in the middle of SOCIAL CHANGE.  However, that seems to be the direction of public education.  The presenter of CONVERSATION ON LEADING FOR SOCIAL CHANGE is an award winning teacher.  She is leading the social change.  I am falling behind and as an award winning teacher myself, I am not going to qualify for many more awards because … I want to teach music.  I want to teach color and gender doesn’t matter.  Music is music.  Respect, responsibility, discipline are HUMAN principles.  and when I say that, I am lambasted.  

Cynically / sarcastically:  I only say music sees no color and gender because I am a 53 year-old / caucasian / heterosexual / father of two / grandfather of one.  I don’t understand what it means to have the “pain” of performing music by people who look like me or frankly, the joy of performing music be people who look like you!  It was never brought to my attention that it was bad / mean / negative to perform music by white men.  And frankly, I don’t think many students do until the adults bring up the fact that, “you(student) do know, you are performing music by … another white man. GEESH.”  

The title of the presentation includes “conversation.”  It will not be conversation.  People are attending that event because they TOO believe in education leading social change.  I am not interested in being told that I am now “the bad guy.”  I must pay for the injustices done by people who look like me.  I know minorities have issues with being lumped into a group.  It must be a human “thang.”  Having an “issue” with people being lumped in a group.  

Seeing teachers are now encouraged to LEAD SOCIAL CHANGE is sad.  Why?  Because, teachers were taught how to teach their passion, not how to teach / lead SOCIAL CHANGE.  By the way, why?  Why are teachers being taught how to LEAD SOCIAL CHANGE? 

I wonder what would happen if I was giving presentations about… SUPPORTING PARENTS.  Help parents work with teachers in bettering their children.  Parents be open to listening to teachers and vise-versa.  I wonder how that would go over.  After all, there are now laws that inhibit parents being parents.  Part of that … social change.