April 12 - Procrastination

I've been procrastinating about writing this blog. Wayne and I discussed how we both had plans to write about the same thing last Tuesday. We decided that maybe I should just write it. Actually, Wayne asked if I would because I don't think he wanted to either. Here's the thing: our project is going quite well and we're learning from the little failures along the way but it is still disappointing when they happen.

We went to St. Andrew High School for Girls on Monday morning. As usual, Catherine and a few other girls came right in, sat down and opened FruityLoops and got to work. The other girls crowded around a couple of computers and sort of pretended to open FruityLoops but were really just talking and hanging out. After some cajoling, we managed to get some of them at least sort of working in FruityLoops. We had hoped that at the end of our time at St. Andrew all of the students would have produced at least one relatively sophisticated song that they liked, but with these girls it just seemed like the program wasn't going anywhere. It wasn't turning out any different than any other class. Some of them opened up Microsoft Word and started working on their personal profiles that they are making to post on their homepages on the St. Andrew website. They mostly consisted of lists of favorite songs and artists and the names of their friends, but that was o.k. with me. At least they were doing something productive and not detracting from the experience of the 4 or 5 girls who really were working on their songs.

I went over to one student who was poking apathetically at FruityLoops on her screen and suggested that she could work on her profile for the website instead. She said it was already finished and opened it up to show me. It was about 6 or 7 pages long. At the top of each page was a picture of a (probably American) teenage boy probably taken from an online version of something like Seventeen magazine. Under each picture was a made up profile of that boy in the style of the "interviews" that magazines like Seventeen publish each week or month of however often the magazine comes out. The questions were along the lines of "What do you look for in a woman?" and "What is your dream date?" Trying to be even a little bit constructive, I asked her if she could do a similar profile of herself. She didn't think so.

Needless to say, we left a bit discouraged that morning. St. Andrew was our first school and was supposed to be a pilot of sorts. We had hoped it would culminate in some rhythms that the students would be proud of and maybe some sort of school assembly where they could play their rhythms and do dances or songs that they had made up to go with them. Instead it looks like it is most likely just to end as any other term-long school project does with no particular lasting effects.

On the other hand, we learned some quite valuable lessons from the experience. First, the program works best as an afterschool program. It is interesting enough to certain students that they are willing to spend hours of their free time after school working on it. It also lets us be available to the students who are most interested. Second, when teaching it in a classroom setting, it helps to give assignments that guide students in what to do. This is something Wayne doesn't like to do because it is somewhat antithetical to the creative aspects of composing in FruityLoops. However, the lessons at the beginning of class are structured well enough to be followed up with a related assignment when it is being taught in a classroom context. (Another advantage of the after school setting is that assignments are not necessary because the students who come are more self-motivated.)

The most unfortunate thing is that it is probably not these smaller issues that are the cause of the lackluster finish at St. Andrew. Rather, it appears that our greatest obstacle there is that the students are female. Becoming a producer, for fun or as a profession, does not seem to be in the realm of imagination or dream for these students. Maybe an R&B singer or even a DJ, but not a producer. It's easy to find the reason for this. Just now I asked Wayne to tell me some examples of female producers. At first he couldn't think of one. After a minute he came up with Missy Eliot (sp?) of flip it and reverse it fame. And we expect these girls to see this as part of their future and make it a part of their identity? Tough.

There is more basis to my conclusion as well. While St. Andrew is faltering, some of our other project sites are flourishing. Camper Down high school is the best example. We go there on Wednesdays after school. As classes let out the little lab where we work fills and fills with students vying for seats at the computer or space around them to help a friend. They are deeply into it and full of questions and ideas for Wayne. They stay for hours and don't even want to leave when we finally have to go. And guess what? They are all male. Yesterday we visited another school for the first time, just to do a demo. Although all the students were interested during the demo and expressed interest in participating in the program, when they were dismissed about 4 or 5 students hung around to find out how they could get the software right away. They were all male.

For the boys here, becoming a producer is a tangible dream. Producers in JA may not be rich, but they have a certain fame and glamour. They also have a chance at making it big. The drive to become a music star, as a DJ or producer is something like the drive to become a star athlete at football, track and field, or cricket. It is somewhat of a long shot, but it is one of the real paths to fame and prosperity that is available to kids who are not likely to be in the running to become doctors, lawyers, businessmen, or politicians. It is a way of gaining street cred and supporting yourself without necessarily having to get involved with guns, drugs, and violence.

Of course, there is nothing inherent in music production that makes it more appealing to boys than girls and nothing that makes boys better at it. In fact, from our experience in the program, there is no indication at all that the boys are better at it, even when they've had more experience. They are just more interested. So how do we combat this problem? Unlike the smaller obstacles I discussed above, I can't see many ways that we can change this. It seems bigger than we are.

Catherine from St. Andrew provides a heartening counter-example. She's been interested and dedicated from the beginning and in spite of the apathy of some of her classmates. She's produced multiple songs, from rock to hip hop, since the program started. She comes to work on FruityLoops even when we aren't there. My hope for now is that girls like her stick with it and help expand the imagination of the rest of them.

For our part, we have an experiment going with an English class at Innswood high school that I hope will help to include some more girls in the program. They are working on writing poems for class. But rather than just writing poems, they are writing poems that will be set to music that they create themselves. They can write raps, dj-style rhymes, r&b songs, dub poetry, or just regular poems to be read over music. I have high hopes for the project. I hope it isn't just wishful thinking.