Re: Teens and Jewish Music

[Rachel Gurevitz <rgurevit...>]

Karen,

I'm going to offer some opinions on your stories from a slightly unusual
perspective for this group.  Although I'm involved in songleading, for most
of the time I'm researching for a PhD, working with 10-12 year old
children.  I'm in my final year and my fieldwork has revealed some really
important social/cultural issues that many of us probably know something
about, but don't often consider their ramifications for whatever we're
trying to achieve.  In the case of my research, I'm looking at the world of
environmental education, but the following is relevant across the board.

In the in-depth interviews I had with children, there are loads of examples
of small events, conversations or interactions where children are knowingly
subverting what an adult would prefer.  I'm not going to bore you with all
the sociological and psychological theories that accompanies some of these
observations, but they do exist.  It's often about the development of
identity, the flow between learning how to 'behave' in society whilst also
challenging that society and negotiating one's role in it, usually done
through peer cultures.  There are also plenty of times when children
ascribe wholeheartedly to the behaviours and tastes of parents - they are
role models, but it depends on the context.  It's not cool to do it with
issues where it's more important to be part of their peer culture, and
music is an essential part of that.

To try and take some of this academic waffle and apply it to your case:  If
I took some of the folk-sounding stuff to the 11 year olds that I teach at
Religion school and said, 'come sing this great song with me' I'd get a
crap response.  It's not Peter Andre, or the Spice Girls (who are already
no longer 'in' over here in the UK), so it's not cool.  However, when a
group of kids started humming a tune when I was introducing them to what
the Shema was about (it was Debbie Friedman's tune), they were thrilled
when I pulled out the words and we all sang it together.  That's because
they had learnt it at a Jewish summer camp, with all it's warm associations
of making friends, having loads of fun etc.  It was part of their youth
culture.  It's also why the camps are so important to young Jews, and I
wish we had it here on the scale that you have it over there.

Unfortunately school, and especially Religion school, is not cool.  So we
often get resistance to things which come from us.  I'm finding time and
time again that I can do so much more if I leap-frog off something that
comes from the kids themselves.  (I've shared my Miriam's song experience
with this list before).

So, maybe the above is some kind of explanation, but what do you do about
it?  I don't have the answers - I learn week by week by experience, and I
often get it wrong as well as right.  But how about saving that great song
for the appropriate moment - when you've really got the kids hooked into
something, and they've 'discovered' an aspect of what you've been teaching
for themselves, and then you reinforce it with, 'do you want to hear a song
that's all about the things that we've been doing?'  If the overall
learning experience has been good then the song will be associated with
those good feelings, and kids might get into it a bit more.

What say the rest of you?

Regards,

Rachel