Justin Ekstrom

4/25/13
EdMul 205
Cultural Autobiography

Each person is shaped and molded by his or her environment. From a young
age, these influences help to determine our very character our values, ethics, and
how we view this very world and those around us. No two experiences are the same,
equipping each individual with a unique combination of factors that regulate how
that person acts in regards to the race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, etc. of
their peers. My experience too is unique. Reflecting on my community and major
experiences (though many things could be considered major given the miniscule
size of the community I grew up in), I am able to determine how these variables all
contributed to the mindset with which I approach the above factors. From this
analysis, Im able to best utilize the information gained in this class as I prepare to
educate a diverse group of students.
Some of my earliest memories involve
nothingness. It is not that I dont remember events,
but rather I grew up in the middle of nowhere
next to a big area of nothing. While my address
would argue I was raised in the small town of
Kentland, Indiana, I grew up on an isolated piece of
land along the Iroquois River, two miles south of
the even smaller town of Brook. The
overwhelming majority of peers and adults I grew
Figure 1: The small town of Brook
(top); My home (bottom left corner)
up with were Caucasian, and though Brook had only approximately one thousand
citizens, there were two churches. These peers and adults (mostly adults), then,
were and remain very conservative. I attended the Brook United Methodist Church
every Sunday that I can remember, and I learned and practiced the doctrine taught
there. It was in this setting that I met my lifelong best friend. Because of the small
communities that fed into the South Newton School Corporation, I learned alongside
the same small group of peers, just above 60 by the time we would graduate. Again,
the overwhelming majority of these students were Caucasian. During my entire
school career, I never had a teacher that was not white, and had only 4 men, the rest
women. This gave me certain notions about gender and teaching at a young age. The
most dramatic diversity I witnessed as I developed was that of economic classes. In
my small community, this ranged from the owners of a successful fertilizer company
to my peers at school on government-funded lunches. These differences were only
exaggerated when we reached the age where ones identity was based largely on the
clothing one could purchase. My rural farming community provided me with few
opportunities to experience a diverse sampling of cultures and ethnicities before
many of my values were formed, yet I somehow managed to develop a tolerant
worldview that keeps me open to differences between individuals. I attribute much
of this to exposure of minority groups through mainstream media as well as
influences from my mother, who was raised amongst a variety of cultures,
ethnicities, and races near Gary, Indiana. My identity, however, does not directly
mirror the environment in which I was raised. Several turning points and life
experiences helped create a more detailed image of who I was to be.
From an early age, music played an important role in my life. My father, an
audiophile, kept me exposed to a variety of music from classic rock to orchestral.
When my sister began taking piano lessons, I spent more time on the keyboard than
she did. I was often given instruments as gifts, an acoustic guitar being my first real
instrument. This sparked a passion for musical creativity that continues to this day
with songwriting. Later, I would learn saxophone and join band in sixth grade. In
what would be the single most influential musical decision of my life, this started me
down the path towards a career in music education with primary study on the
saxophone. Along the way, music exposed me to all types of people. Through honor
bands and summer music camps, I interacted and communicated with people who
differed from me in class, race, sexual orientation, and religion. I began to break free
from my homogeneous bubble of culture in rural Indiana. Music has taught me that
these factors, while they make us unique, are not things that should individually
define us, nor should
they determine how I
treat that individual.
When we united in
music, we came
together to express
something greater
than ourselves. We
became one. It taught
me that no matter how different an individuals background, that person and I may
Figure 2: My participation in the 2010 Indiana University Summer Music
Clinic
still have some common ground. Although it can often be used generally to define
the Conservative nature of my hometown, my faith in religion has also played an
important role in my development. Though I attended church regularly, I never truly
experienced what it meant to be a Christian. I knew to be kind to others and to love
God, but to a growing child, that means very little. The summer before seventh
grade, I attended a weeklong church camp in northeast Indiana. There, I truly
experienced God for the first time. I came back home rejuvenated in my faith and
better connected to my church peers. These friends would serve as my foundation
through the rest of my schooling. The doctrine and teaching of my faith heavily
influenced many of my subsequent decisions and values. Christianity tends to get
most conflicted over the debate on homosexuality, an argument that can become
quite heated. My experiences as a fine arts enthusiast and the natural exposure to
homosexuals one gets in that area of study had already shaped my tolerance. I knew
these individuals intimately I had made music with them. I respected them, and I
believed it was my duty to continue to share Gods love with them as I heard about
weekly. My experiences with music and with my faith have, hand in hand, shaped
the majority of my values. Together, they have given me a tolerance and an
acceptance of all people in other social and cultural groups other than my own.
Having grown up with these limited exposures to a variety of cultures and
races, this course was very helpful in preparing me for the various student
backgrounds I will be exposed to as I teach. It is important for me to remember that
in the same way my environment and experiences shaped my perspectives, each of
my students has a unique set of values that they have developed themselves, and
each of those needs to be respected. Though several of my peers lived well below
the poverty line, the average student in my school was able to live comfortably at
home. In this course, we discussed how children growing up in areas of high poverty
are often of a racial minority, and these go together to set these students up for
prejudice within the education system, putting them at risk for a self-fulfilling
prophecy of underachieving in school. We also addressed how the schools
themselves in these poverty-stricken areas are often under-funded and lack
adequate resources such as current textbooks. Knowing this prepares me for
teaching should I end up in one of these school systems. While I have developed a
tolerance and acceptance for homosexual individuals, I learned how to be a safe
zone for LBTQ students and how to protect them in my classroom, ensuring that all
students feel safe. To include all students, it is imperative that I establish a
multicultural curriculum that engages all students, not just those who had a similar
background to my own. For a music classroom, this would mean playing a variety of
repertoire from other cultures such as Latin music and pieces inspired by Middle
Eastern modes. Doing so promotes an accepting environment for all backgrounds.
Though I was raised in an environment with relatively few cultural
experiences besides a middle class, white, Conservative mindset, I have had my own
experiences that have helped to shape my values and views towards individuals
with differing perspectives. This multicultural education course only furthered my
understanding of these differences and how I can be best prepared to deal with a
variety of backgrounds and the challenges once faces when teaching students with
their own unique worldview, shaped by their environment and experiences just as
I was.