Klarinet Archive - Posting 000181.txt from 2006/04

From: o4rmondtoby@-----.net (Ormondtoby Montoya)
Subj: Re: [kl] Business aspects of music performance & education
Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2006 02:16:35 -0400

Wayne Thompson wrote:

> 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.

Even when primitive populations prepared for war or summoned their gods,
they sang and danced and played instruments. They still do.

> 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?

= Well said, Wayne! =

> 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

....by denying funds and forcing schools to choose which children to
abandon?

> 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

....because, if for no other reason, a significant number of parents and
religious communities fail to do these things unassisted. For example,
why do schools have sex education and sustance abuse courses?

Art is equally an inescapable and necessary part of our existence, a
part of communication, and it deserves attention too.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Klarinet is a service of Woodwind.Org, Inc. http://www.woodwind.org