Klarinet Archive - Posting 000179.txt from 2006/04

From: Wayne Thompson <wthompson222@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Business aspects of music performance & education
Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2006 01:21:50 -0400

Warren wrote,
"I find it perplexing that in a "post-nuclear
apocalypse world", those who have written warmly thus
far regarding the value of "music and dancing", seem
to have no idea of what that hell would be like.
Imagine no food, no clean water, dead bodies
everywhere, and you think we will need "thinking,
music, and dance skills"? In addition, you're
assuming you will be alive!
Never assume. Cheers!"

Cheers, indeed, Warren! Allow me to imagine the world
we evolved to be in. Not the very uncomfortable
transitional world we'll really be in for a while if
this 'civilization' we're in comes to the worst.

Dee wrote,
"However, music is still not a basic skill but a
secondary skill. In a society of hunter/gatherers,
the basic skills are hunting, foraging, and gardening.
If we wind up in a post apocalyptic world, you'd
better polish those skills first."

Yes, I understand what you mean. But I don't think
music is really secondary. What I was getting at, is
what people really are and what they teach their
children. Assuming that the people we're talking
about are not impoverished, the children in a
hunting-gathering society would learn to forage and
hunt, and they'd learn to socialize, too. If they're
not starving, I think they'll be singing and dancing
in the evenings. I think music and dance is a primary
human attribute along with talking and toolmaking and
catching rabbits.

Maybe this is a long way from what we need to teach in
schools. Do we teach the current specific toolmaking
skills needed for today's jobs? Or do we teach
broader humanizing traits that will help everyone
retain the culture we have? I don't have a clear
answer to that, but I think that question bears on
what you all have been discussing. Do we bear down
and teach writing and math only, or do we attempt to
teach culture and art, too?

Of course you have all been discussing this current US
program "No Child Left Behind" and whether it is doing
effectively what it purports to be doing.

My strong opinion is that reading, writing, math, art,
music, physical education, shop classes, and even
basic 'good ethics' do all belong in the schools.
It's a giant problem to do all that well. So I dream
of educational reforms that have bigger goals than
NCLB. I do believe that humanizing and civilizing our
children belongs not only in families and religious
communities, but in the public schools, too.

Wayne Thompson

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