Re: Music Education (was: Presentation on Language Creation)

Iain writes:

>Anyway, part of the problem lies in that music is regarded as
>"recreation" and/or "not very useful".
Which brings us, full circle, back to the same arguments leveled at conlangs.

>So when comes time for budget
>appropiation, and a school (if the school's administration is even
>...intelligent enough to ask for funding for music) asks for music
>funding, the local taxpayers freak out and gripe and moan and complain
>that "music" isn't a useful trade, that they're not going to waste their
>tax-dollars on such frivolous things, etc.  (I live in a
>rather....backward state in the U.S. ;)
I have the luxury of teaching at a private institution where parents
are paying whammy bucks for their kids to get a premium "classical
education".  Admittedly, appropriate lip-service is paid by all to
the various disciplines, but lock yourself in a room with a set of
parents and you *will* be talking math and science. Again, all well
and good, but it'd be nice to see some more Mario Pei's, I.M. Pei's,
Yoyo Ma's, Alvin Ailey's, and Shirley Ann Grau's dotting the US's
cultural/intellectual landscape.

Kou