Klarinet Archive - Posting 000885.txt from 2004/03

From: ormondtoby@------.net (Ormondtoby Montoya)
Subj: Re: [kl] not just the music department
Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2004 15:41:19 -0500

I was wrong to include my comment about learning handicaps when I posted
about schools who have dropped music.

The 'proper' distribution of resources between disabled and non-disabled
is not on-topic here, and I was wrong to bring it up.

We do not want another "ammendment' blow-up on this list.

===========

It *would* be on topic to discuss the dropping of all music from a
school's curriculum. We have had this discussion many times before,
and I don't know what else there is to say about it. It's just that I
NEVER imagined it would strike my town.

If there isn't enough money to do eveything, a reasonable question may
be whether it's proper to drop *all* education in a broad field such as
"music". There was a time when I thought to myself: "Well, perhaps
budget problems will force parents or organizations outside of the
school to supply the instruments; but if this becomes necessary, I can
accept it, albeit sadly." But now, one of our districts has dropped
all choral classes in addition to every other form of music. There
simply is not music of any sort in these particular schools.

I don't deny that math & reading are more basic to the functioning of a
society, but without at least some music (and other arts).... well, it
makes me think of lobotomy.

===========

It would also be on-topic (and we have done so previosly) to discuss
whether every child who asks can have some music education. Or should
only those who have demonstrated potential be accepted?

Available funding will have a major role in this question, of course.
To use myself as an example, I was excluded as a kid, and I haven't
become a proficient musician during my older years either; but there's
more to education than just producing skills. Quality of life ---
which includes more than shelter and food and health --- and breadth of
experience and options are reasonable measures of a society also, even
for those who aren't skilled. Therefore (imo) they should be part of
education's goals as well.

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