Re: new thread - old topic ( NOT BBb vs. CC)


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Posted by Chris B on March 03, 2003 at 13:13:59:

In Reply to: new thread - old topic ( NOT BBb vs. CC) posted by JoeS on March 02, 2003 at 23:24:15:

I have read all the comments and they are all interesting and valid. A few other thoughts that might add to the general thread. For those of us who were around and out of diapers in the mid to late '60s, there was a movement on the part of IBM to actively recruit music majors to become computer programmers. I took their programming apptitude test and blew it away, even though I have never claimed to be a math whiz. I have neve read a lot of research about this, but since I have spent the last 20 plus years in the computer industry, I have a few ideas. The experience of performing music trains us in a "foreign" language. One where strange symbols have meaning. It also encourages pattern recognition. The rythmic aspects of music do require a fundamtental understanding of fractions. When I was teaching music back in the Dark Ages, I found that the Orff method did seem to help students grasp other concepts like these.

We look down our noses at the music childern listen to and try to teach them "better" music, etc. There is a joke that says if you want to stop teenage sex, just make it a required subject in schools. My point here is that perhaps it is the process of music education that is partly at fault when it can not be sold to a school district or to parents in lean economic times. On this BB we are preaching to the choir about the value of music in the curriculum and how it has enriched our lives. Unfortunately, we need to come up with ways that get this concept across to others outside of music that pay the salaries and vote in the money, etc. Perhaps we need a little more of Professor Harold Hill's approach backed up with solid results. Too many programs wallow in mediocracy where even the gradparents shun the performances. Coupled with programming that seeks to "educate" the audience rather than entertain and you have the formula for a prgram that will not be supported.

If Mozart, math proficiency, etc. can lure them in, then our job is to keep them there and wanting to come back for more. This is not an easy task, but many have shown that it can be done successfully. All the ancillary and anecdotal things that will help attract students and convince adminstrators and parent of the value of music can be promoted or killed by the program the students find when they walk in the door. Let's not bash too many things that get them there in the first place and then work to promote the kind of postive things that we all have expereinced that got us to and keep us in music at any level.


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