KC HillDeaf Aboriginal Woman Learns Piano
November 5th 2008 11:54
Many have barriers that they have to overcome to succeed in life, and overcoming any barrier is a testament to the inner strength of the individual. Anna was exceptional, in that she overcame three barriers, physical, cultural and gender, to achieve things many said were beyond her reach.
I met Anna in my first week on the Aboriginal community of Woora Warra. She was a teacher's aide at the school I was teaching at in outback Queensland. All the teacher's aides at the school, and two of the eight teachers, were Aboriginal, referred to as Murris in the north of Australia. Anna was also deaf, and was looked to as inspirational by most in the community.
By birth, Anna had achieved two barriers to overcome. Her Aboriginality had ensured difficulties with being accepted to the mainstream Australian community. Australia has a terrible track record on human rights abuses in the treatment of it's Aboriginal population. It is not much better with the lack of opportunities it presents for women to achieve in careers. Anna had scored a third hit, by being born totally deaf as well, giving her the prospect of incredible adversities in life.
My work in the years leading up to, and including, working on this community had involved addressing the issues of the marginalised, and helping find ways to overcome the barriers they faced. I had been inspired in this type of work by stories of famous people who had overcome the barriers life had thrown at them to make a mark in the world. One of my favourite such stories is that of "The Commoner and the Nobleman":
A commoner was out gathering wood when he came across a nobleman up to his neck in a bog. The commoner threw him a rope, and had his donkey pull the man out of the mud. “I will give you half of all my wealth,” said the relieved nobleman, “for without you, I would be dead.” The commoner replied that he was happy just to have saved the nobleman’s life.
Moved by the remark, the nobleman said, “I would like to send your son to the finest schools and give him the best education in all England.” The commoner accepted, knowing it would give his son a chance at a better life. Everybody was happy.
Many years later, the nobleman’s son became very ill. All the doctors told him that his son would soon die. The nobleman called for the commoner’s son, who by then had become a famous doctor, and asked if he could help. The doctor said he would try, and used a new medicine he had discovered. It worked, and the nobleman’s son went on to live a very long life.
The nobleman was Lord Randolph Churchill and his son was Winston Churchill. The commoner’s son was Alexander Fleming and the medicine was penicillin. A simple act of kindness changed the course of human history.
Or, so the story goes…
Part of teaching those with barriers is to find alternative teaching strategies. Much of the marginalisation and failure to hurdle the barriers lies with the failure of established teaching methods to satisfy the needs of the marginalised. The teaching needs to be relevant and desireable, and this can be achieved by making the learning interesting.
There is one universal language that transcends all barriers, and is understood by all, and that is music. At Woora Warra, I used a piano keyboard to help teach the high school students to read. Anna helped me prepare the learning materials, study notes and lesson plans.
The strategy was to put stickers with the letters A through G written on them, onto the notes of the keyboard. The letters A through G, written on the notes of the keyboard, corresponded to the same letters on a sheet of paper. These letters, written above each syllable of the words of the song, indicated which key on the piano to play. This provided an alternative way of communicating the musical language.
There is another fact with the piano that seemed particularly relevant for the community I was in. A piano player can play a good song by just using the white keys, and a good song just using the black keys. But the most beautiful music is when the black and white keys are played together.
Seeing the kids learning to play tunes on the keyboard, Anna decided she wanted to play too. The other teachers tried to dissuade her, thinking failure would be too upsetting, but Anna was determined. So was I. I agreed to help Anna.
Anna would place one hand on the keyboard’s in-built speaker and feel the vibrations as I played the first four bars of ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’. Anna would then sit at the keyboard and play the same notes as I had just played, keeping one hand on the speaker to make sure the notes were right. It took almost a week, but she learnt the whole song, and could play it without assistance.
She invited her mother to come to the school for a surprise, and Anna started playing ‘Twinkle Twinkle’. Others in the room stopped and looked at her, many with open-mouthed astonishment. She played it note perfect, and everyone clapped.
Anna’s face wore the biggest smile I had ever seen. Tears of joy ran down her mother’s cheeks, and I have to admit, I was a little teary-eyed myself.
Anna’s achievements in the face of adversity serve as a constant inspiration to me, and her story is one I like to tell, with the immense pride I have for her incredible achievements. Her achievements wouldn’t change the world with such dramatic impact as Fleming’s, but it inspired her community, and changed her world forever.
In hindsight, the changes to an individual's world are equally important to the changes in the world at large.
More stories by this author after the following important information
I met Anna in my first week on the Aboriginal community of Woora Warra. She was a teacher's aide at the school I was teaching at in outback Queensland. All the teacher's aides at the school, and two of the eight teachers, were Aboriginal, referred to as Murris in the north of Australia. Anna was also deaf, and was looked to as inspirational by most in the community.
By birth, Anna had achieved two barriers to overcome. Her Aboriginality had ensured difficulties with being accepted to the mainstream Australian community. Australia has a terrible track record on human rights abuses in the treatment of it's Aboriginal population. It is not much better with the lack of opportunities it presents for women to achieve in careers. Anna had scored a third hit, by being born totally deaf as well, giving her the prospect of incredible adversities in life.
My work in the years leading up to, and including, working on this community had involved addressing the issues of the marginalised, and helping find ways to overcome the barriers they faced. I had been inspired in this type of work by stories of famous people who had overcome the barriers life had thrown at them to make a mark in the world. One of my favourite such stories is that of "The Commoner and the Nobleman":
A commoner was out gathering wood when he came across a nobleman up to his neck in a bog. The commoner threw him a rope, and had his donkey pull the man out of the mud. “I will give you half of all my wealth,” said the relieved nobleman, “for without you, I would be dead.” The commoner replied that he was happy just to have saved the nobleman’s life.
Moved by the remark, the nobleman said, “I would like to send your son to the finest schools and give him the best education in all England.” The commoner accepted, knowing it would give his son a chance at a better life. Everybody was happy.
Many years later, the nobleman’s son became very ill. All the doctors told him that his son would soon die. The nobleman called for the commoner’s son, who by then had become a famous doctor, and asked if he could help. The doctor said he would try, and used a new medicine he had discovered. It worked, and the nobleman’s son went on to live a very long life.
The nobleman was Lord Randolph Churchill and his son was Winston Churchill. The commoner’s son was Alexander Fleming and the medicine was penicillin. A simple act of kindness changed the course of human history.
Or, so the story goes…
Part of teaching those with barriers is to find alternative teaching strategies. Much of the marginalisation and failure to hurdle the barriers lies with the failure of established teaching methods to satisfy the needs of the marginalised. The teaching needs to be relevant and desireable, and this can be achieved by making the learning interesting.
There is one universal language that transcends all barriers, and is understood by all, and that is music. At Woora Warra, I used a piano keyboard to help teach the high school students to read. Anna helped me prepare the learning materials, study notes and lesson plans.
The strategy was to put stickers with the letters A through G written on them, onto the notes of the keyboard. The letters A through G, written on the notes of the keyboard, corresponded to the same letters on a sheet of paper. These letters, written above each syllable of the words of the song, indicated which key on the piano to play. This provided an alternative way of communicating the musical language.
There is another fact with the piano that seemed particularly relevant for the community I was in. A piano player can play a good song by just using the white keys, and a good song just using the black keys. But the most beautiful music is when the black and white keys are played together.
Seeing the kids learning to play tunes on the keyboard, Anna decided she wanted to play too. The other teachers tried to dissuade her, thinking failure would be too upsetting, but Anna was determined. So was I. I agreed to help Anna.
Anna would place one hand on the keyboard’s in-built speaker and feel the vibrations as I played the first four bars of ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’. Anna would then sit at the keyboard and play the same notes as I had just played, keeping one hand on the speaker to make sure the notes were right. It took almost a week, but she learnt the whole song, and could play it without assistance.
She invited her mother to come to the school for a surprise, and Anna started playing ‘Twinkle Twinkle’. Others in the room stopped and looked at her, many with open-mouthed astonishment. She played it note perfect, and everyone clapped.
Anna’s face wore the biggest smile I had ever seen. Tears of joy ran down her mother’s cheeks, and I have to admit, I was a little teary-eyed myself.
Anna’s achievements in the face of adversity serve as a constant inspiration to me, and her story is one I like to tell, with the immense pride I have for her incredible achievements. Her achievements wouldn’t change the world with such dramatic impact as Fleming’s, but it inspired her community, and changed her world forever.
In hindsight, the changes to an individual's world are equally important to the changes in the world at large.
More stories by this author after the following important information
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