It's easy to hate Nickelback. I've always found their music annoying. I'm pretty sure one of my first tweets was, "Instead of making kids stay silent in detention, just play Nickelback. That's a real punishment." However, recently a friend of mine challenged me on this. "If you can't stand Nickelback, go make your own music. Try and create a song that is as bad as you think they are." About a week ago, I spent a week listening to a Nickelback Pandora station. I wanted to see if they were really as bad as I thought they would be. At first, I hated it. The music sounded dull. The lyrics were simplistic and trite. Every song sounded the same. However, the more listened, the more I began to see another side to Nickelback. What might be called trite to some might be classic to others. What my be simplistic to some might be simple to others. The concept of every song sounding the same might just be what gives a band their "sound." I began to realize that the lens I used to criticize Nickelback was not the same I would use to criticize Mumford & Sons or Sufjan Stevens. I came to this conclusion: though their music is not my style, my disdain for Nickelback was mostly borne out of arrogance and elitism. I came to realize, too, that even if I may never like Nickelback, there are others who love their music. So, it has me thinking about the way people criticize public education. What if it's a matter of style? What if people who lob insults at school simply assume that because it doesn't fit
them or
their kids it must be applied across the board? What if the hatred of schools is born out of elitism and pride? What if there is more nuance to schools? What if people aren't applying the same critical methodology to public schools that they apply to the systems they push? What if people have bought into the notion that schools are awful because it has become a meme, not unlike the hatred of Nickelback? photo credit:
Daniel F. Pigatto via
photopin cc
