Klarinet Archive - Posting 000123.txt from 2006/04

From: "Dee Flint" <deeflint01@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Business aspects of music performance & education
Date: Sat, 15 Apr 2006 16:37:41 -0400


----- Original Message -----
From: "Ormondtoby Montoya" <o4rmondtoby@-----.net>
To: <klarinet@-----.org>
Sent: Saturday, April 15, 2006 1:54 PM
Subject: Re: [kl] Business aspects of music performance & education

> Sarah wrote:
>
>> I am surprised that you call music a
>> non-survival skill - for many musicians it is a
>> matter of survival.
>
> ... witness the fact that many musicians will leave their home (eg: New
> Orleans) if the pay there is insufficient... rather than staying and
> changing their job instead.
>
> (which, come to think of it, is probably why I included both school and
> pay in the subject line of this thread.... they *are* related)
>
> But more to the point: just as no reed works for everyone, no life style
> or any other resource works for everyone either, and different people
> *do* need and *do* survive in different ways.
>
> My complaint is not that NCLB demands certain math and English skills.
> Rather, it is that NCLB is proving to demand these skills _to the
> exclusion_ of other skills which also can allow a child to survive and
> feel satisfied.

It is not the schools' job to teach skills that allow us to feel satisfied.
Nor can they do much about it anyway as what makes one person feel satisfied
will do nothing for another.

My personal point of few is that good English skills are so essential that
if these are missing, the person will be handicapped in all aspects of their
life. They will be limited in how much they can learn about the arts, for
example. There will be limits on pursuing the knowledge and skills that
make a person feel satisfied. If you have the language skills, you can add
whatever your heart desires in whatever depth you choose at a later date if
need be.

Also take a look at what some schools are calling a music class. Often they
learn absolutely nothing about music other than to sing in harmony. These
kids get several years of such classes and cannot read music, have never
heard of the circle of fifths, have no idea what a chord is and so on. In
these cases, little is lost if the class is dropped.

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