I find that perpetuating the western classical paradigm is - I think we are ethically remiss on what kinda cap - I think we are ethically remiss in perpetuating this paradigm as the only paradigm. And I think music educa - I think the schools of music are complicit in this in that the theory classes that the students take usually are western classical theory, that the music history classes they take are baroque renaissance, classical - the, you know, those big areas. And I think we try to talk the talk. But then when it comes into implementing collegiate curriculum where students are engaging with world musics and world music practices, that we are not doing the best job that we can do.

However, that said, I think necessarily is really working on that. Some schools do it better than others. But in my classes, my elementary pedagogy class, that’s all we talk about is how - well, it’s a big part of what we talk about is that the - this stronghold that the western paradigm has, not only on how we think about musics but how we think about what it means to learn music and what it means to engage in musical experiences. And there’s a big disconnect between students that come with music in their lives, and then school music.

So if we’re teaching one way, and the kids are experiencing and having learning, they’re engaging in music from - since they were in the womb, huge disconnect. And it’s almost - it’s almost, I would say, a form of cultural genocide when - I know that’s kind of harsh word in a sense. But when we take - assume that students don’t have - they’ve never had the joy of music in their lives because they’ve never had sung or played western classical music is insulting. And then to have 12 years of their lives focused on the western classical paradigm and ignore what they bring from their homes and their churches and their street experiences and say that doesn’t count; that’s not real music, is ethically unsound, to say the very least. So we - I spend a lot of time deconstructing that particular paradigm.

[End of Audio]