Best Reading Reaction

While reading “Lemonade or Merlot?” by Harold Best, I found his writing to be very easy to read. He had many things to say, mostly about music, but also how those thoughts related to his view of multiculturalism in education. I enjoyed reading his first hand account of multiculturalism through music, and how music can be a metaphor for diversity and multiculturalism. All of the notes come together in a way that “no beat dominates. Rhythm and meter must answer to contribute integratively to final architecture” (6). Even the language he used seemed artistic. He had a way of writing that was very fluid and exceptional. I found the most meaning in the following quotes:

“Music brought me into an increasingly peaceable sense of unity among musics that analysis and practice in the academic world did not fully satisfy” (4). In this quote I think he really nails why art is important in schools, whether that is music, theater or the visual arts. Art is something that satisfies parts of our human condition that other academic disciplines cannot.

“…Hierarchies that are radically multicultural because they stretch all human minds without disdaining any one of them; they honor the inborn ability of every human being while granting to the wiser and more gifted a place of leadership and example; they understand that true service and humility are identical twins; and in teaching, they show that wisdom and authority shine more brightly that knowledge and power” (5).

The quote that most inspired me was this: “I’ve been talked into something. Yes, I have. But I have not been talked into everything. My teachers merely lit a few enduring candles and the music showed me the rest of the way” (6). This really made me think of my dream as an educator, and how I hope to light a few enduring candles in my student’s minds to keep them loving the arts.

In the article, “Multicultural Art Education” by Stuhr, I enjoyed the definition of the human relations approach to art education. Just like Best’s article, I found some quotes and theories that were the most important to me:

“Students learn to respect one another regardless of race, class, gender, or exceptionally the United States will eventually reach its goal of equality for all…” (173). In this quote, it really spoke to what art can do for children as well. Art is a human condition, at least that is what the philosopher Tolstoy referred to it as. Art is something that makes all humans equal and is a part of our human nature to create. In this way, it brings all types of people together for one common purpose. In thinking about lesson planning, this would be a great segway from art history into a community project.

Stuhr wrote a lot about how curriculum focuses on the western culture. I agree that a lot of the things I learned in high school and even in college is based on the western world, or more closely the United States. Whether it is integrating the overall idea of unity and multiculturalism or incorporating different specific cultures within my classroom, I would like to integrate much more information that students might not learn anywhere else.