Podcast

TEACHING TEENAGERS: MUSIC & IDENTITY

TEACHING TEENAGERS: Music, Identity & Expectations


When Michael Bradshaw moved from Japan to Australia when he was 14, his Caucasian appearance didn’t match his Japanese identity. During his transition through culture shock and social awkwardness, his passion for music became an unhealthy escape before it became, and continues to be, a major means for connection.

As a teenager Michael realised that he wanted to teach music, and went on to study music and music pedagogy in Hungary, now teaching at the Sydney Conservatorium High School and at the Cuskelly College of Music.

In addition to his own remarkable experience as a teenager, in this conversation Michael talks about working with teenagers as ‘emerging adults’ – having high expectations, setting the bar and constructively helping them to learn from their inability to meet it. He discusses the importance of clear boundaries and how to set them. We also discuss the benefits of music for everyone, irrelevant of experience, ability to read music or sing, and how anyone can engage with music for the pure joy of it.

Podcast

Listen on

More episodes

Episode
64

POWER OF ONE VOICE - Choices, Actions & Humanity

Over the course of her writing career, Deborah Ellis has donated over $1,000,000 of her royalties to charities. She's a woman who walks her talk and puts her money where her mouth is. She's an incredibly authentic and inspiring human being. I feel privileged to have had this opportunity to speak with her about creating the world we want to be in, the power of simple decisions and actions, and the importance of taking responsibility for what we see in our world.

Listen
Episode
63

Celebrating Kindness – even in war

My 11-year-old niece handed me a book and said: "You have to read this." When I asked her why, she said: "Because it's a Very Good Book". She was right. I couldn't put the book, "We Are Wolves", down. Nor could I put down either of the other two books written by Katrina Nannestad which she lent me. They’ve been read and loved by three generations in my family.

Listen