Music Education (was: Presentation on Language Creation)

>  From "Douglas Koller, Latin & French"
> > The "waste of time" argument irks me. I lump it
> > together with the
> > "study music so you'll be better at math and
> > science" ads that have
> > been running recently in the US. Like, what's wrong
> > with learning
> > music 'cause music, an sich, is cool? Creativity is
> creativity; where
> > it stops, nobody knows.
> From: bnathyuw [mailto:bnathyuw@YAHOO.CO.UK]
> but i don't think there's any harm in getting more
> people on board ( i've been doing music since i was 4,
> From: Douglas Koller, Latin & French
> So, yes,  while there is certainly no harm in bringing people
> on board, one might wish that music wasn't dangled out there
> as a means of honing one's math and science skills (and
> thereby landing the big-paying jobs) rather than a means in
> and of itself. Still, though I am not a parent, I can
> appreciate the abject terror that a sentence like, "Dad, I
> want to be a musician/actor/artist in Soho." might invoke.

I /think/ that I snipped all that meaningfully and appropiately
credited. :)

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. ;)

Iain

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