Student A

8
IDU Essay

Interdisciplinary Essay and Evaluation Report

The statement of inquiry states that, art is an important media of

communication and can present key messages of social injustice.
In the interdisciplinary task between music and I&S, I will be
focusing on human right 5, no torture, in the Deep South of the US
during the 1800s slavery period. The African American slaves
were being torture by their owner in forms such as slapping,
kicking, whipping, having items thrown at them and mental abuse.
As a result of work songs and field shouts the blues music was
born. After the great depression blues music migrated North to
larger cities where the style altered slightly. Blues music has bee
very important throughout history as it allowed the slaves to
communicate their emotions and through blues rock and roll, and
Figure 1: This is a map of the jazz was born. In this essay I will be reflecting on my personal
experiences and thoughts on the unit.
spread of the blues in the Deep
South of the US. http://mrshealy-
As a student it is sometimes difficult to mix subjects and classes
usii.wikispaces.com/file/view/Map_of_
without being confused. Using the human rights topic between
Blues_in_America.JPG/312345866/287x
326/Map_of_Blues_in_America.JPG music and IAS, helped me understand how you can mix subjects
and classes. This is a useful skill in life because when you have a
job, you wont just write a report about science. You may also have to include aspects of math,
humanities, English, etc.

The benefit of learning about human rights using both music and IAS was that, I learned more about
the perspectives of the slaves whose human rights were violated. I gained a deeper understanding
of personal experiences and feeling during this time and not just facts and knowledge about the
human right itself, how they came to be and laws that protect human rights. Also during the IDU,
I was able to learn more about how people whose human rights are taken away from them might
feel, the history of human rights and human right violations in the Deep South of America in the
1800s. We learnt how the slaves might have felt during this time by listening to many examples of
blues music linked to human right violations. One particularly good example was Strange fruit by
Billie Holiday. In this song the singer sings with so much emotion and passion that it gives you an
idea on how she felt. The lyrics talked openly about how badly black slaves were treated and
includes lots of description which left a visual image in my mind.

The challenges during the IDU was that it was sometime confusing mixing two very different
subjects. In music we often focus on structure of music and music theory. While in IAS we focus
on events and ideas which impact society, this includes many facts and statistics. When mixing
these two classes to work on the interdisciplinary project, I had to learn to focus on both of these
aspects at the same time. This was challenging and took some time to understand, however once
I started to understand it the project became much easier.

In IAS we focused more on the facts and information side of human right violations for example
what human rights are, how they were established through history, how they impact us today and
consequences that occur when they are violated. However, in music we focused more on the
personal side and the structure of blues music. In music class we spent lots of time listening to
Student A
8
IDU Essay
blues songs and analyzing them to ensure that we understood the structure and how the singers
might have felt. Focusing on slightly different things in class sometimes made it confusing, however
I quickly learnt to adapt. Another challenge was that it is difficult to write lyrics which have a deep
meaning and inform you about people whose human rights were violated. This was difficult because
I have never had my human rights violated. I have only ever listened to examples of blues in which
the topic is human rights. N these songs they described their feelings and experiences well,
however it is not the same as experiencing it first hand. Therefore, writing deep lyrics in the
perspective of a slave was challenging.

My strengths during this unit was that I worked hard to understand the blues unit and how human
rights were violated during the 1800s in the US. I worked well with my group to produce a blues
song about slaves being tortured. In my opinion, I worked well collaboratively. Another strength I
had was that the human right I had studied for the visual representation task was No arbitrary
arrest, detention or exile. This right links to No torture, which gave me some insight on how the
slaves might have been tortured.

A weakness I experienced during the IDU was that at first I was confused about how IAS and music
could mix together, however after a few lessons I started to understand the project. A weakness I
had was that I am not very creative, so I found it difficult to write the lyrics of the blues song from
a perspective of a tortured slave. With the help of my group, we managed to write the lyrics for our
blues song from the perspective of a slave who is being tortured.

During this unit I learnt that human rights and blues are actually connected. Many blues songs
written during the 1800s-1900s are about human rights and human right violations. Examples of
human rights that were commonly violated during this time period and were written into blues
songs were: torture, killing, lack of food and water, slavery and discrimination. While listening to
and analyzing blues songs, I gained a new understanding of how the slaves must have felt when
their human rights were violated. The blues songs were personal and filled with emotion and
information about how their lives must have been.

In appendix 1 you can see my blues lyrics about the human right No torture. I wrote the lyrics
using the perspective of a young slave who has been tortured. In the first verse, the slave asks a
question, Why do you keep on torturing me? This suggests that the slave has been hurt multiple
times and doesnt know why he was being tortured. The third line mentions different types of
physical abuse the slave has endured. Slapping, hitting, kicking, whipping. These were common
forms of torture to the slaves in the 1800s.

In the second verse the slave asks Dont the human rights apply to me? This suggests that the
slave knows he shouldnt be being tortured and wants it to stop. In the third line the slave says that
no torture is a right and asks for it to stop. In this verse we wanted to show that the lave was
thinking about the torture and human rights. The slave wants the abuse to stop.

In the first and second line of the third verse it says, What did I do to deserve being tortured? This
line is meant to suggest that the slave doesnt know what he did to deserve being abused. In the
final line of verse three it says, Please stop hurting me. Im scared. This means that the slave
really wants it to stop and is scared of being tortured. This is important because often the torture
would be severe and it would be terrifying for the slave.
Student A
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IDU Essay
To write the blues song, first my group decided on a human right that was often violated in the
Deep South of the US, during the 1800s and 1900s. Next we gathered a list of adjectives we
wanted to either include or write about in our song. After this we decided to make the first verse
more about the physical side (slapping, hitting, kicking, whipping). The second verse was going to
be more about what is going on inside the slaves head and more about the human right. We decided
to make the third verse about the slave not knowing what he did wrong. After we decided this we
each wrote one verse, before we checked the verses as a group. After the verses were written we
had to make sure they fit with the guitar. We practiced once before changing the lyrics slightly.
After adapting the lyrics, a bit more, we practiced performing the song a lot more.

A few new skills I learnt during this unit are playing the blues, learning about human right violations,
what an interdisciplinary unit is and how important an IDU is. I learnt to play the blues during music
class, where we learnt different blues skills for example the chord progression, bass line and a
blues scale. We learnt about human right violations during IAS class, where we had group
discussions, watched videos and studied a human right and its violations in detail. I learnt what an
interdisciplinary unit was in both IAS and music. Although it took me a few classes to understand,
it is a useful idea to understand. The final skill I learnt in this unit is how important an IDU is.
Interdisciplinary units are very important because they teach us how to explore and learn about
more than one subject at once. This skill is very important in life outside and inside of the
classroom.

Throughout the Interdisciplinary unit, I have learned how to mix subjects together, about the blues,
about human rights and human right violations. Overall I found this unit a positive experience,
because I learnt useful skills that will help me throughout the MYP. The enquiry question of this
unit is, Has blues music contributed to change the perception of human rights? The answer to
this question is yes. I believe that the blues music changed the perception of human rights because
it helped more people understand how it felt to have your human rights violated.

Appendix 1

Why do you keep on torturing me?

Why do you keep on torturing me?
Slapping, hitting, kicking, whipping. That's not okay,

Don't the human rights apply to me?

Dont the human rights apply to me?
No torture is a human right, so stop

What did I do to deserve being tortured?

What did I do to deserve being tortured?
Please stop hurting me, I'm scared.