Wild Child

School days were a challenging part of my life. I’m currently studying Music Business at Leeds College of Music and will be graduating in 2019. However, music education is not something I received in school. Their perception of music education was sitting at a keyboard or singing ‘pop’ songs that were extremely outdated and not something I could engage with. Being an extremely enthusiastic and hyperactive individual, I struggled to fit into the school system with ease as I was unable to express the creative side that to this day takes up a large part of my personality. Because of this, my behaviour deteriorated rapidly. I was known as a ‘problem student’ mainly because I was not able to sit in a formal lesson such as the core subjects. I didn’t feel this style of teaching would help me blossom as a person. Sitting listening to teachers tell me to behave made me rebel more. I am sure that part of the reason for this is because I had no lesson I could relate to and look forward to. I feel that if I had a better experience with music education I could possibly have excelled more in my core subjects because I would have used up some of my energy by doing a lesson I enjoyed.

After leaving secondary school in 2012 and attending LCoM since then, I have matured in more ways than I could ever have expected. Although I am still as passionate, enthusiastic and hyperactive as I was before, I am able to use this as an advantage. Based on my own experience, I believe that schools made their lessons more engaging and exciting by adding a variety of different instruments and genres instead of the common classical music or out-dated pop songs, students would enjoy their classes more. Now I am a student at LCoM I feel passionately about how music education is presented to school students because of my past experience. As part of my final year studies I am creating workshops to bring music education back to life in secondary schools, creating a fun, creative, generation-appropriate experience, and I am hoping to turn this into a viable career when I graduate.