Klarinet Archive - Posting 000528.txt from 1997/10

From: Neil Leupold <nleupold@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: music education in Calif.
Date: Mon, 13 Oct 1997 10:29:25 -0400

> I think the answer includes problems of no elementary general music from
> k-4 or 5, and weak instrumental/ vocal program from 4-6 and 7-8.

This was certainly the case when I was going through primary school.
I grew up 40 miles north of San Francisco, in Sonoma County, and
there was no such thing as in-school private lessons between grades
4 through 12. We started playing at 9 years old, were taught the
bare rudiments of reading music and learning how to play in an en-
semble, but were left to our own devices regarding how to play our
respective instruments. The necessary moral and financial support
from the community and state government were simply not forthcoming
in the context of California's endless budget problems. Thus, the
music programs and the feeder system were all anorexic at best,
and the parents didn't see any importance in having their children
take lessons privately outside the school system, much less work
*with* the school system and initiate some sort of foundling
program of bringing in specialists to spark some growth in the
young musicians. In retrospect, it's not difficult to recognize
that, much like the state itself, the parents were having their
own budget crises at home, and enabling their kids to take music
lessons was not an option. 50% of the kids I knew lived -- much
like myself -- in single-parent households.

Imagine my surprise when I relocated to Texas and encountered the
expansive musical bureacracy in place throughout the public school
systems here. The amount of time and energy and money being spent
to maintain and grow the musical and artistic education programs
is staggering compared to the cadaverous wasting-away realities
of the system from which I originated. I'm in the Dallas area,
and every single school district has some form of solid feeder
system, and a core of educators and parents who ensure that the
private lesson aspect continues intact and continues to grow
and develop for the benefit of the kids' artistic development.

Having not received my first private lesson until I was 18 years
old, I'm astonished at the benefits being derived by the children
in Texas' school systems. I sometimes tell my students how in-
credible their opportunity is to be taking lessons, and that they
should never take it for granted. But then, these kids already
have Leblanc Opus and Buffet R-13 instruments, so it might just
be too late for a lecture on the virtues of appreciation. None-
theless, I cannot restrain myself from standing in awe and envy
at what these kids are being given, wishing in such desperation
that I'd had this chance when I was their age. It gives me
great pleasure to provide them the foundation which I did not
receive so early on. I like knowing that I'm a part of their
head-start into becoming fine musicians.

Neil