When I was in college I worked at my university’s radio station. To say it was the best time of my life is an understatement. The friendships I formed when I worked there will last me a lifetime. But that is not the only gift my college radio station gave me.
It gave me the gift of expecting more of my music and my musical artists. While there I was exposed to different genres of music I never thought I would enjoy. Genres like folk and bluegrass, underground hip-hop, and jazz opened up a whole new world for me.
These various types of genres of music illustrated to me that music with a message is still out there; that not all music is superficial and about things in life that do not matter. There is still music that speaks of social justice and the beauty of the world. This is a gift that I will cherish for the rest of my life, expecting more. The thing is you have to be willingly to look for it because mainstream media are not playing it.
Some may call it being a music snob, but I do not see it like that. I see it as demeaning more, not just accepting everything that is handed to me and believing that it is good. Half the fun of music is digging deep and discovering that unknown artist that you can then tell your friends about.
Below are some artists I think you should check out.
William Elliott Whitmore: Diggin' My Grave
Cody Chestnutt: Look Good in Leather
Dave Bruebeck: Blue Rhonda al Turk
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Grad School
Well, well, well, we meet again here at the blog of Peter Kreten. Grad school has made me quite busy writing papers, creating PowerPoint presentations, and attending lectures. But returning to school has made me realize something. Today’s generation has this false sense of entitlement. There are people who believe that just because they went to college and graduated; they are entitled to whatever they want. It seems that no one wants to put in an honest days work anymore, or they will only work hard for something only if it benefits them in some way.
I am back in Grad School to obtain my masters in Education; I already have my bachelors to be a high school history teacher. I am currently not teaching, but I heard hour stories from my classmates about some of their students’ attitude. One of the most disconcerting events I have heard about is some of the parent’s attitude towards educators and how some of them place their child’s faults solely on the teacher. It is the teacher’s fault their child is failing, but they do not take into account that the child does not do any of their homework. Whatever happened to the child taking responsibility for their actions? We as a society do not go around telling doctors how to practice medicine, so why do we go and tell teachers how to teach?
Now I do not want to sound like I am completely defending teachers, and that they are perfect. Far from it, there are some teachers out there that are just bad teachers and whom should not be in the classroom. But come on people. Instead of placing the blame on one another, let’s work together to solve the education problem this country has. Right now American schools are failing, and we are just allowing it to happen. Perhaps we are too concerned about watching our reality shows?
Let’s both encourage our students to reach for the stars. Education is the key to our country’s future, and currently we have students in college who cannot do basic arithmetic, or use correct spelling and punctuation in a formal paper. If we do not do something soon, we are going to be in big trouble.
But for now I will get off of my soap box, I promise that my next blog post will be much more positive.
Till then
P.S.- A Hard Day’s Night may be the perfect pop album! If you do not believe me, go and listen to it for yourself. I wrote this blog listening to it’ man did it kick ass!!!
I am back in Grad School to obtain my masters in Education; I already have my bachelors to be a high school history teacher. I am currently not teaching, but I heard hour stories from my classmates about some of their students’ attitude. One of the most disconcerting events I have heard about is some of the parent’s attitude towards educators and how some of them place their child’s faults solely on the teacher. It is the teacher’s fault their child is failing, but they do not take into account that the child does not do any of their homework. Whatever happened to the child taking responsibility for their actions? We as a society do not go around telling doctors how to practice medicine, so why do we go and tell teachers how to teach?
Now I do not want to sound like I am completely defending teachers, and that they are perfect. Far from it, there are some teachers out there that are just bad teachers and whom should not be in the classroom. But come on people. Instead of placing the blame on one another, let’s work together to solve the education problem this country has. Right now American schools are failing, and we are just allowing it to happen. Perhaps we are too concerned about watching our reality shows?
Let’s both encourage our students to reach for the stars. Education is the key to our country’s future, and currently we have students in college who cannot do basic arithmetic, or use correct spelling and punctuation in a formal paper. If we do not do something soon, we are going to be in big trouble.
But for now I will get off of my soap box, I promise that my next blog post will be much more positive.
Till then
P.S.- A Hard Day’s Night may be the perfect pop album! If you do not believe me, go and listen to it for yourself. I wrote this blog listening to it’ man did it kick ass!!!
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