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

 --- "Davis, Iain E." <feaelin@...> wrote: > >

>
> Anyway, part of the problem lies in that music is
> regarded as
> "recreation" and/or "not very useful".  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. ;)
>
same sort of forces seem to come into play over here :

take an underfunded state primary school ( where music
education should begin ), add a bunch of underpaid (
tho frequently dedicated ) generalist teachers. add
assessments of 'core' subjects ( english, maths,
science ) every couple of years ( at 'key stages' )
and a pretty prescriptivist curriculum which demands
that a large proportion of the time be spent on these
subjects. then insist that physical education also be
taught ( i know, it's important children get exercise,
but queueing up for fifteen minutes to clamber
clumsily over an old gym-horse doesn't really
constitute the minimum 20 mins of intense aerobic
exercise ) and remember that the schools probably
don't have the budget to buy plastic recorders any
more ( nor the disinfectant to steep them in ), and
it's hardly surprising music drops of the curriculum (
nor indeed french )

i was lucky . . . the cuts were only beginning to
bite, the curriculum hadn't been rigidified, and we
had a couple of talented musicians among the staff.
all the same, my musical education was in the majority
out of school, and only because my parents were happy
to pay for it ( there was a good state-run saturday
music school, but it was based in tower hamlets ( half
an hour's drive ) and had to cater for the whole of
london iirc. i'm not sure if it's still going )

bn

=====
bnathyuw | landan | arR
stamp the sunshine out | angelfish
your tears came like anaesthesia | phèdre

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