Four-letter-word

Rafael Barcellos de Moraes, Brazil

Rafael Barcellos de Moraes is a pre-service teacher and participant in a Continuing Teacher Education Project at Universidade Federal de Viçosa in Brazil. He is planning to pursue his master’s degree in Applied Linguistics next year and his interests include narrative inquiry in education. E-mail: barcellos.rafa@gmail.com

It was just one more meeting with a Continuing Teacher Education Project for English Teachers at a Brazilian University – an apparently normal Saturday in our lives, but so eagerly expected! In that meeting, we were supposed to discuss the use of music and songs in class. However, the activities took an unexpected turn as the subject touched on a paradoxical and delicate subject.

In spite of the rewarding benefits of using music and songs in class, teachers sometimes feel reluctant to do so due to strict program schedules or to a so-claimed lack of creativity and interest – “I don’t know how to use songs” and “my students just want translations.” Besides creating a more pleasant atmosphere in class, songs “can stimulate very positive associations to the study of a language, which otherwise may only be seen as a laborious task, entailing exams, frustration, and corrections” (Murphey, 1995, p. 3). In order to encourage teachers to use songs in their classes, we had a guest, a student from our university master’s program, developing several creative activities with songs.

The song our guest used in his presentation was wonderful and the participant teachers were just amazed at the possibilities! So many ideas and different activities developed from a single song! However, as the discussion progressed, we had to face a predicament: in spite of the romantic lyrics, the video clip for the song included unnecessary display of violence. Unexpectedly, what was supposed to be a discussion on the activity, turned out to be a discussion on the content and suitability of the video clip.

Should teachers take violent content material to class even for pedagogical purposes? During that meeting, some participant teachers said they would, emphasizing it would be an opportunity to reflect with students about the violence in the video clip. Other teachers argued they would rather choose other kinds of materials, non-violent ones. In both cases, they seemed to agree that violence was so present in their contexts that students would respond naturally to the violent video clip – a sad observation which preoccupied us all.

Believing the atmosphere could not get gloomier, an obscure remark intrigued us even more. One participant claimed students would find rather odd if she said “I LOVE you” in class. At that heartbreaking moment, we could clearly see a mix of sorrow and disquietude in each other’s face. No one could believe our values have changed so much – it just could not be true! Of course there is still good in this world, but how do we justify responding naturally to unkindness and disrespect? Have people lost their way with affection so badly? Has LOVE become hard to show and even harder to be accepted? When has LOVE become so complicated? Is it because we call everything LOVE, when we actually mean abuse and disrespect?

LOVE is neither what we see on TV nor whichever sparks a romance. LOVE is as simple as it could be. It simply allows human beings to live in acceptance of the other (Maturana, 1998). To LOVE one another means to accept the other as a legitimate being, demonstrating equality, brotherhood, and humility. Thus, LOVE is the emotion that allows YOU to be different from ME and the power that bonds the differences.

We finished that meeting not being able to solve our paradox – whether we should or should not take violent content material to class. Nevertheless, something different had touched our hearts that day. It reminded us of our role as humanistic educators and of Paulo Freire’s wise words. According to that Brazilian philosopher and educator, respect and humility as well as persistence, willingness to change, joy, and LOVE are unquestionable virtues created in the teaching practice. Thus, out of respect to learners’ autonomy and dignity, let LOVE be the four-letter-word that will provoke them to adopt a critical behavior towards the awkwardness and recognize their roles as socio-historic-cultural and loving beings. Let LOVE be the guiding emotion in our daily practice, allowing us teachers to teach for a better living, loving hope, and social dignity.

References

Freire, Paulo. (2007). Pedagogia da Autonomia: Saberes necessários à prática educativa. São Paulo: Paz e Terra.

Maturana R., Humberto. (1998). Emoções e linguagem na educação e na política. 3ª reimpressão. Tradução de José Fernando Campos Fortes. Belo Horizonte: Ed. UFMG.

Murphey, Tim. (1995). Music and Song. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Please check the Creative Methodology for the Classroom course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Teaching through Music and Visual Art course at Pilgrims website.