Week of October 1, 2009, Issue #728
ARTS
Lesson Plans, Touring Vans & How I Started Teaching
Dallas Thompson's book connects teaching with punk-rock ethics
Bryan Birtles / bryan@vueweekly.com
If Ian Mackaye taught you algebra, you'd probably learn about a lot more than just linear and quadratic equations. When Dallas Thompson, drummer for local band Slates and formerly of both Secret Fires and Fractal Pattern, decided to go into teaching, he decided that his students wouldn't be limited to just what was set out in the curriculum.
Working a crappy job as an airport baggage handler led Thompson to an epiphany—working for $9 an hour doing something he hated wasn't going to cut it for the rest of his life. So he dusted off his science degree, which he hadn't really been using, and enrolled in an after-degree in education. In an effort to reflect upon his progress—something recommended within the program—Thompson started a blog which has formed the basis of a book he's releasing entitled Lesson Plans, Touring Vans & How I Started Teaching.
"A lot of the things I learned from records—like the Fugazi records I listened to growing up—how do you apply that to something other than booking tours and putting on shows? How do you apply that in the classroom? Being ethical, democratic principles, environmentalism, how do you apply that in the classroom?" he asks rhetorically. "You can go by the curriculum and the guides, or you can build upon them with what you learned over the past 15 years. That's something I always struggled with because there's the easy way and then there's the right thing to do."
The book recounts both the usual stuff education students go through—learning to teach, doing a practicum, the brutal honesty of kids—but also puts the focus on his own moral standpoints which, influenced as they are by the punk rock ethos, are sometimes at odds with those of the average Albertan.
"When you go in there and you're like me, vegan, an environmentalist, really political, you have to be careful what you mention in the classroom because it can come back to you," Thompson explains. "But at the same time it's like, 'Why did I learn all of these things? Why do I have a voice?' it's not to hide it from kids. I would never tell a kid, 'I think you should be vegan, I don't think you should vote for Stelmach,' but I think it's important to get kids to think, because I don't think they're challenged a lot of the time."
At one point, Thompson's former band the Secret Fires were able to play a show at the junior high he happened to be student teaching at, something that seemed to have a huge effect on the kids he had been interacting with for a few months, many of whom had never seen live music. It was important to Thompson because he knows the transformative effect live music can have on a young person.
"I grew up in a small town where bands never came and the first time I saw live music was when the only high school band in town came to my school and played at lunch hour. I just remember being like, 'Holy smokes! You can pick up a guitar and learn how to play it?' Those guys were my age and that was huge for me." He says. "A couple months later I went out and bought a guitar, it had that kind of effect on me." V
Mon, Oct 5 (7 pm)
Lesson Plans, Touring Vans & How I started Teaching release party
Featuring Dallas Thompson
With James Stewart, Nathan Setterland and Louis Williams
The Hydeaway (10209 - 100 Ave), $10
All Ages
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