Music Fundamentals: Three Classes with Daniel Trush

[1] Late one Friday afternoon, as I watched members of my ear-training class write the results of a rhythmic dictation on the board, I realized that one student was staring at the permanent staff lines, as though transfixed. As I approached him, he looked at me and earnestly asked, "Professor, what are we doing here?"[2] This anecdote provides just one example of the kind of teaching situation about which one does not learn a great deal in graduate school. Socioeconomic circumstances often find the least experienced teachers in the most complex classroom environments. Because disability inextricably threads its way through the intricate social fabric of gender, class, and race, it's not surprising that many-though certainly not all-students with disabilities choose accessible, affordable, urban colleges. Hunter College, part of the CUNY system, is one such institution. At least partially because of its proximity to bus and subway transportation, low tuition, and flexible class schedule, disabled students have become a fixture of classes at Hunter. In addition, Hunter is on a direct subway line from Roosevelt Island, where many disabled New Yorkers have found community and accessible apartments for decades (Hughes 2007). Thus, while many distinguished and experienced faculty teach at Hunter and the CUNY colleges, a significant number of new adjunct professors and graduate student fellows take charge of classes, particularly those at the introductory level.[3] Because I have chosen to present this paper as a case study, the collective "identity" of the institution is essential to my methodology. This paper finds its basis not in traditional research, but rather in the details of my experience teaching one multiply-disabled student. This pupil took three music classes with me when I was a graduate teaching fellow at Hunter College between 2003 and 2006.[4] I met Daniel Trush when he began attending Hunter as a non-matriculated student. Having learned some basic piano skills with his music therapist as part of his physical and cognitive rehabilitation, Daniel enrolled in my Music Fundamentals class. He subsequently took Ear Training I and a general voice performance class with me, and also took an elementary piano class and Music Appreciation with other instructors. Each of these courses presented different challenges for Daniel, his note-taker, his family-who attended each class with him-and for me. Although I had taught students with visual impairments and other physical disabilities in previous classes at Hunter, I had never yet encountered a student with a significant cognitive disadvantage. Daniel's presence in my classes inspired me to strive for greater clarity in my own teaching, and provided the opportunity for me to reevaluate my methods of assessment and mentoring.[5] As a rule, I ask students to fill out a questionnaire on the first day of class with basic information about their lives as students, but I also ask them to detail their musical lives and add some significant details about themselves that they think I ought to know. Being the academic packrat that I am, I managed to unearth Daniel's questionnaire from the first day of Music Fundamentals. He writes:I have a great interest in music and plan to take a number of music classes. I had a brain aneurism when I was 12 and was in a coma for many days. I never lost my love of music. Before my brain injury, I played the guitar for two years, and the trumpet for two years. Since my injury, I have played the keyboard with my right hand for the last three years.I learned later from his father, Ken Trush, that Daniel is a survivor of five brain aneurisms, one of which burst when he was twelve, leaving him hospitalized for a year. He used a wheelchair for two years following his injury, but Daniel has since learned to walk again using leg braces and he now has the full use of his right hand. When playing keyboard music, he can use the index finger of his left hand to deliver the bass line. …