Posted by Sage (and weary) One on January 24, 2000 at 20:03:40:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Anyone go to or know about ucf?? posted by Dave on January 24, 2000 at 19:06:37:
Dave, I assure you I love music as much as you. In music we express our greatest joy and our most profound sorrow, our loftiest praise and our most bitter disappointment. I loved music enough to practically estrange myself from my parents in order to pursue it as a major. Yes, the world needs musicians, and I think it's great if they go to college, and (the third time I say this -- why do you think I don't mean it?) I am happy to support education that leads one to be productive in society. The notion that music is not productive in society came from your mind, not from mine. If you are a music major, I am just thrilled to death to subsidize your education, even pay for it entirely. The 3.0 thing? A bit arbitrary, to be sure, and by no means an indicator of success in life. It is, however, an indicator of success in college, and we're not talking about what you can do with your life, we're talking about a criteria for guaranteed 100% paid up tuition in college.
When I refer to paying for someone else's play, I was referring to the non-majors. If a student is not a music major or a music minor, then the music IS A HOBBY. This is, I think, the seat of our disagreement. I LOVE music, spend every spare minute on it. I play instruments, sing, arrange. But IT IS MY HOBBY. I don't make a living from it, and don't intend to make a living from it. That's what a hobby is. I couldn't care less if a non-major plays in the band, or even has (subsidized) private lessons. I really don't even care if PedalBb plays some moldy old horn that's sitting in the corner someplace. I'm only saying it should not be assumed that you have a right to have your hobby subsidized by taxes, and (my main point) that tremendous satisfaction can be had by paying your own way. Remember, most people who are taxed far less than I am are hurt far worse by those taxes.
Consider this. I happen to think my religious faith is the most important thing in the world, and that everyone should have an opportunity to pursue it to the max; but I'm not advocating expenditure of tax dollars to support it. Anyone think I'm a brutish hateful jerk for being opposed to that?
I have known the difficulty of studying music without money, and support liberal expense for music ed for EVERYONE up through high school; but after that, I just think we need to be adults and pay for our own toys (clarification for Dave: if you are a pro it is a TOOL not a TOY. If you are not a pro, it is still a TOOL, but is ALSO A TOY).