Watch the Children: Our classroom mantra
Click here to hear this post read in Jess’ voice.
My beloved undergraduate Music Education professor, Peggy Bennett, introduced me to early childhood music education. I entered Oberlin Conservatory of Music intending to become a choral conductor. Completing my Music Ed degree required taking a course in elementary music pedagogy, and that involved apprenticing in Dr. Bennett’s preschool music class on Wednesday evenings during my sophomore year. There were only three of us enrolled in the course that fall, which meant abundant opportunities for participating in and leading the preschool class. I was surprised to find that I loved it. I loved it so much that I returned to the role as a volunteer for the entire next semester… and later found my permanent niche as an early childhood and adaptive music educator.
Dr. Bennett had a mantra for early childhood music education. She learned the phrase from her own mentor, Mary Helen Richards, who is widely credited with bringing the Kodaly Method of music instruction to the United States. I have found that this mantra, interpreted flexibly, works in every possible educational setting, and it works particularly well for educators who work with the diverse needs of disabled populations.
It is three simple words: watch the children. This phrase captures many things at once.
Most importantly, we are teaching children. Humans, not curriculum. Each kid is unique, with their own changing set of needs and interests and hopes. The best thing that we can do as educators is to match our instruction to the distinctive individuals in front of us, as they are in that moment. For great learning to take place, the responsibility is on the educator to meet the needs of the students, and not on the students to meet the instructional preferences of the teacher. The best way for us to understand what they need is for us to really see them and observe how they respond to lessons and the world around them in real time. We may need to make mid-lesson adjustments, sometimes major ones, and we can use our observations to inform planning for future lessons. We also need to keep in mind that every person’s needs and capacity change from day to day and minute to minute. Our approaches must always be responsive to this reality.
The phrase watch the children is also about connection. It implies that we must give them space to be themselves, rather than enforcing rigid compliance, and get to truly know them so that we can build authentic and meaningful relationships. Students need to feel emotionally safe in order to be ready to learn. Being known and trusting the adult in charge are absolutely essential prerequisites to learning.
When applied to disabled student populations, this mantra also instructs us to acknowledge the deep complexity of every child. Our students are so much more than their disabilities. It is incumbent on us to see and know our students’ strengths and interests that can be leveraged to promote their learning, but also to understand their pains, worries, internal patterns, and the visible and invisible barriers that they face to learning. Our job is to remove as many barriers as possible. What may be a neutral or positive thing for some learners– such as eye contact with a speaker– can be a total impediment for others. We can’t apply “one size fits all” expectations to diverse classes.
On the same theme, each manifestation of any given diagnosis is unique. As one pithy saying goes, “labels are for jars.” When you hear that a new student is autistic, you really can’t assume anything about what their behavior, needs and experiences are like. We now understand that there are no traits that all autistic people have in common; autistic people as a group know an extreme range of experiences. What you think that you know about autism– including something you learn from us!-- may or may not be true for the child in your classroom. The same phenomenon is true, or at least similar, for other conditions. You can’t be an effective educator if you are teaching a diagnosis. You have to teach the actual child in front of you.
When Jen and I present on these topics together, it happens regularly that I give generalized advice about teaching– often it’s what not to do, like employ sarcasm in the classroom– and then Jen quickly jumps in with a reminder to “know your audience!” And she’s right. Breaking rules can be justified when you know your students well. So keep watching the children. Be a learner in your own classroom. Build relationships. Be flexible. Be compassionate. Be creative. Be connected. Creating and making music with others is part of what makes us human, so always remember to see the humanity in others and in yourself.