At 7:23 AM -0400 9/17/11, Phil Daley wrote: >At 9/16/2011 11:56 PM, John Howell wrote: > > >By rights we should require good sightreading as > >a prerequisite before we accepted any student as > >a college music major, but if we actually did > >that we wouldn't have any voice majors at all > >(except the smart ones, many of whom started > >taking piano at around the age of 7!!). > >That's your opinion. > >Unfortunately, the education department doesn't agree with you. > >They also don't think art, history or science are important, either. > >All the testing in done in English and Math, so what do you think the >schools are doing? > >When the punishment is firing of all the staff for poor test scores, what >do you think they focus on?
I assume that you mean the Federal Government, although every state and every university also has an 'education department.' And of course you're quite right. I grew up in a family of educators (music, foreign language, librarians, you name it). And I know all the problems from the inside, from way back. But this emphasis on "the basics" goes back to the '60s, the Space Race, and the very vocal concern with the "brain drain." And I think it was in the late '60s that my parents were quoting from the Carnegie Commission Report, which said something like, "Yes, the schools must concentrate on the basics, and the arts are basic." It's when we elect ignorant politicians that we get ignorant governing. (Otherwise known as "garbage in, garbage out"!) But my "opinion" comes from years of observing what is actually DONE in the schools, not to mention what is NOT done, compared with some other systems. And of the mindset that most teacher-preparatory programs seem to have. And that comes straight back to the individual teacher, and the professors who prepared that teacher. Believe me, we've talked about demanding better musical training for our incoming music majors, but with the LACK of training many of them have had we simply can't do that, so we have to provide as much remedial work as we can. We aren't Juilliard, and we can't limit ourselves to the top 2% of music students, because we aren't gonna GET them! And we must do something right, because our music ed majors get good jobs and make names for themselves in the profession, and our performance majors go on to excellent grad schools. Some of our best musicians in our best ensembles are NOT music majors. They're in demanding fields where they can actually get jobs, but they're the kind of people who excel in whatever they tackle, and we love 'em!! John -- John R. Howell, Assoc. Prof. of Music Virginia Tech Department of Music School of Performing Arts & Cinema College of Liberal Arts & Human Sciences 290 College Ave., Blacksburg, Virginia 24061-0240 Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034 (mailto:john.how...@vt.edu) http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html "Machen Sie es, wie Sie wollen, machen Sie es nur schön." (Do it as you like, just make it beautiful!) --Johannes Brahms _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
