Our job is never just teaching our subject. It is always more than that.
Today, my Year 8 Music class, early on in a unit on the traditional music of Torres Strait Islander and Australian Aboriginal people, erupted into an energised debate amongst students on cultural appropriation.
Passionate views were voiced on what it is to cause someone offence and on the responsibility we assume when we realise that our words or actions have offended someone.
I extended a challenge to the three most vocal advocates for cultural sensitivity, incensed by the unwillingness of their peers to hear their viewpoint, to find an online resource they think would be the most effective in convincing someone of the need to reconsider their position on the appropriation of another’s culture.
Sharing the advice that it is easier to change someone’s mind with soft, woollen gloves than with a sledgehammer, they agreed, but remarked that the sledgehammer would be more fun…
As a Music teacher, my job is much more than teaching music.
Adam Majsay 