Week of Oct 2
This past week was a pretty fulfilling week of teaching with the students. It was my last week of teaching the senior class full-time so we decided to take pictures. They have been a really wonderful class to work with. So engaged in conversation and after about the first week, they realized what I expected and came prepared for class every time. I am going to miss this group of students when I’m gone. But I have hope that I will see some of them again. Some of them I’ve even been meeting with to help them with questions and procedures for graduate school in the US. I would love to see some of them study in the US!
This class is my band lab class that I have been teaching this semester. What we’ve been working on his how to run a band rehearsal. It’s been really fun with them because we just come and make music together. They are really interested in what we do, it seems. And I hope when I’m teaching them is useful to them. This is an extra class that is not required and it’s not really even in their official schedules, yet they keep coming back each week. That shows me that they are very eager to learn more about wind band rehearsal strategies – these students LOVE band! They’re also really fun and great group to work with! I’m really going to miss the students when I leave here. We only have two more weeks of classes left!
Sadly, none of these students are on the track to become a public-school music educator. The way the undergraduate curriculum works here is that students can only get a bachelor of arts in music, essentially. They do not get certification to teach. From what I understand, anyone who wants to teach hast to take classes pretty much primarily in the college of education. But the problem is there is no overlap of courses or the option to take some courses in music and some courses in education, which would lead to being a music educator. It’s one of the most disheartening things I’ve learned about the education system here. I have so many questions. Who teaches the music classes offered in the schools? What music classes are offered? WHY ON EARTH can’t there be a music education undergraduate degree? These questions I’ve discussed with my music colleagues (who are also interested in and are actually doing things related to music education), and it is one of their biggest frustrations as well. They know what the solution is, but it seems administrators in other departments are unwilling to work together on something like this. I’m just in amazement that this can’t happen (or at least hasn’t at this point). It would provide the school systems with so many more music teachers who are so much more prepared and educated on their content areas.
I am still trying to put together my understanding of the landscape of public-school music teaching in Ghana as well, because it is not cut and dry and clear to me at all. So at this point I am continuing to just chat with students and teachers that I run into to piece together these things: Where is music taught? Who teaches it? What is taugt? Who takes music courses? Who doesn’t? It’s very different than in the US for sure, which I would expect. But it’s not different in the way that I expected. From what I understand, at the high school level, students can choose music as an elective and take it for all three years of high school. But the music class that they take is essentially a theory course. There is no standard performance class like a band or even an African drumming and dance ensemble. Some schools have a performing ensemble in addition to the theory class, but they are extra-curricular and seem to meet outside the school day. So I wonder, who teaches that? Who attends? Where do they get instruments? What music do they play? How do they learn? From what I understand from the students perspectives that I have talked to, they don’t find the music theory course to be a very fun course because it’s taught much like a math class or any other academic class. It saddens me that students don’t have the opportunity to have a fun engaging music making type of class in high school. As for elementary and middle school, what I understand is there isn’t music at all in most schools. But I am still trying to get more information about that.
AN UNRELATED ASIDE about naming ceremonies
This is an interesting and unrelated thing. DrumGhana performs a lot at naming ceremony. Specifically naming ceremonies for adults. Specifically African-American adults who have come back to Ghana to learn more about their ancestry and heritage and roots here. There’s a naming ceremony this Sunday and also one next Sunday. I asked Antoinette where and when they were so I could be there to participate in the performances. She explained to me that naming ceremonies are pretty sacred events and a lot of times the African-Americans don’t want anyone who is not Ghanaian to be at the ceremony. It’s a very special thing for them. So she told me she would ask them if I could come and be part of the performance and explain to them that I’m part of the group. Ultimately, they were not comfortable having me there, so I was not invited to go. I told her that I completely understand why they might not want especially a white American to be at an event like that. I just think they that’s an interesting thing to know. And I totally respect the wishes of the people who are having the naming ceremony. I don’t fully understand what all goes into an evening ceremony but I think it’s pretty awesome that African-Americans come here to get a Ghanaian name in an official capacity through this ritualistic event.
This is one of the dances that DrumGhana typically performs at a naming ceremony:
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