When I was on this list before there was a big discussion about the difference between Chinese and Jewish students and the rest of the country's students. Why they achieve more on standard tests than the average student. Keith said many things about the excellent education and the book learning.
After working with Jewish students, Cantors and Rabbis in my studio for forty years I can tell you that the big difference to me is not the reading, the writing or the math. Nor is it the science. The big difference for the Jewish and Asian students that I've seen is their strong sense of identity and their sense of the complex culture and art activities that are manifested in their teaching, their rituals, their buildings and their attitudes. The messages of Rabbi Akiva's life and Martin Buber's words on the meaning and value of Art and culture as the cornerstones of what it means to be human and in their case, Jewish. It was these things that made the young Franz Rosenzweig turn back from becoming a Christian and become a great Jewish scholar with Martin Buber. It was not Jewish thought. He had that and he still wanted to join the Christians. It was the culture, the actual Torah, the beauty of the music, the depths of the tradition that he met at this time of year that made him become a cultural treasure for his people. What are we building for America? Bean counters and drudges committed to four chords and a three part 32 measure song form about nothing but sex and violence. It's great fun and recreation but is isn't Art and it isn't serious except about money and booze. At the same time that I was wishing happy holy days this article came into my e-mail. I would suggest that these people really don't understand the necessity of complex ideals and identity and serious perceptive cultural practice. They don't have what held the Jewish people together and makes the Chinese willing to put off gratification when the European communists wouldn't. The classical economic killer assumption is this: Music is not work and is therefore of value only as play and recreation. But wait! Do you believe the churches would go without music? Would the military give up military bands for money? Would the White House give up their trumpets and Sousa's Marine Band? Not on your life. How about the cantor? Would the synagogue eliminate the expressive side of the Bema and just leave the preaching? They would have lost Rosenzweig and all of that great collaboration with Martin Buber. American fallacy number one: Because biological evolution made music fun they think music is ABOUT fun. Is fun the reason Billy Graham had George Beverley Shay to fill his crusades with magnificent tone? Is fun the reason the Islamic call to prayer is sung rather than spoken or played on a trumpet? There are deeper things here at work than mere words or pretty tunes. Parts of the brain are dedicated solely to music. That wouldn't happen if music was not an important part of our evolutionary biology. (The same is true of rhythm and kinetics [dance]) Music and movement shaped the human pelvis and made a bigger brain possible. Music and movement probably came as the messengers of the advent of language. Singing moved the temporalis muscle from above the eyebrows to above the temple and allowed the frontal bones to thin and make bigger frontal brain lobes. I've said this for years and been laughed at but the neuro scientists and music therapists have been working on it and the foundations like the DANA neurological foundation have stated that music is not correlative to intelligence but foundational. Someone tell the economists. Wake up Stanley Jevons and tell him he was wrong. Etc. etc. etc. Yes, we still have the problem of the classical economic thought and the gray world. (The Gray World to a Cherokee is the world where the dead go to be recycled.) Economists, from Mills and Jevons on, rated music and the arts as zero utility. Today America's jobs are screwed up because of these hare brained ideas of what is useful. To believe that property is more valuable than personal competence is why we are in this mess. These days are holy because the human instrument, with what the Cheyenne call the "seven arrows" or the seven perceptual systems, offer the possibility of a masterful human filled with generosity, courage and love. Instead, what we get is Ayn Rand and cartoons that can't hold to candle to Disney's Pocahontas in serious ideas. Pocahontas IS a cartoon and pretty simple folks! If you really want to make a movie about Roark and Galt, give them to Disney. That's where that kind of thinking belongs. Here's the article from Oregon. REH Marked absent: Many Oregon students will do without music and art classes Published: Monday, September 06, 2010, 8:00 PM Updated: Tuesday, September 07, 2010, 3:33 PM Brent Wojahn/The OregonianBarbara Delegato, a music teacher at Dilly Elementary School in the Forest Grove School District, pulls drums from storage to get ready for the new year. This year will include more travel for Delegato as she will go from teaching in two schools to three. Many kids look forward to going to choir class at the end of the day or performing in uniform with the school band for the first time. They clamor to get to the paints and colored pencils in art class, to create a castle, an airplane or a cartoon. But when schools reopen this week, most Oregon students will have fewer opportunities to take advantage of these courses -- classes that many say are necessary for a well-rounded education. >From Burns to Dallas to Portland, school districts say vanishing state revenue, rising costs and increased pressure to meet standardized testing benchmarks in subjects like reading and math are threatening to squeeze out courses in the arts, music, physical education and career education. As the Dallas School District looked for ways to close a $1.3 million gap, the 3,200-student district and its school board made what they called one of their most controversial decisions - eliminating elementary school music. "We know that education is about more than reading, writing and math, but you have to make decisions somewhere," said Superintendent Christy Perry. "Music is so valuable to us. Our teachers would say add back music before adding back days. We're all thinking, how do we do what's right for kids when there are no right answers?" Dallas officials cut three school days last year and are planning to cut seven days this year. They've also cut back in non-classroom spending and reduced library media assistants to half-time. School officials say it's difficult after several years of reductions to avoid cuts that hurt students. In smaller school districts, it's nearly impossible to make one change without affecting the entire district. In Burns, the district's only art teacher retired in June. And, as the revenue forecast plummeted this summer, district Superintendent Bob Sari said he realized he wouldn't have the money to bring in a replacement. "It's been a steady decline," Sari said. "I was really upbeat and feeling good when we heard about the jobs bill. Now, we're back where we've been. We've whacked our budget so much it seems there is nowhere else to go." What's happening in Oregon is playing out throughout the nation, as school districts struggle to figure out what will survive in the midst of an economic downturn. Art, library and music are increasingly unlikely to be counted among schools' top priorities nationally and locally. "We're in an environment where schools are proved to be successful by these narrow measures in very few subjects," said Mike Blakeslee, senior deputy executive director of MENC: The National Association for Music Education. "Even if I see that music education is a benefit to kids on a day to day basis, the evaluation of my school, my county at the end of the year will be based solely on standardized test scores in a few subjects." Portland Public Schools is eliminating at least 12 music teaching positions and Beaverton School District axed its small orchestra program. Last year, Ashland nixed the 5th grade strings program and Jim Tindall became North Wasco County School District's only certified librarian, serving five schools and 3,000 kids. In Oregon, legislators have supported statewide standards for physical education and passed a bill that required districts to address library programs. Right now, those goals seem out of reach for many districts. Kids will still have time for play at recess but many will have fewer opportunities to meet with a trained teacher to learn team games, coordination and nutrition. Most school libraries will be open this year, but more will be without certified librarians to teach students how to mine a database or distinguish truth from fiction on websites. Susan Stone, president-elect of the Oregon Association of School Librarians, said one of her big concerns is that few school districts in Oregon have a plan for having certified teaching librarians in their schools at all. "We keep talking about rigorous curriculum, but library and research skills have been put to the sidelines," she said. "College freshmen are coming into college and don't know how to search a database, how to cite or critically evaluate articles. It makes sense when they come from a district where that's not taught." Around the nation, certified teaching librarians are spending more time teaching English and reading, or managing a school's technology programs than teaching research skills. To save money, many Oregon districts depend on part-time education assistants to check out books and keep the library functional. Many school districts are seeking creative ways to bolster arts and music programs. Beaverton is pursuing a federal $4 million grant that could help to provide art at elementary schools over five years. North Clackamas School District reduced staffing for PE and music but will continue to offer the courses twice a week by increasing class sizes on certain days. But with limited time and resources, students will feel the effects of district choices and budget reductions. In Forest Grove, five music teachers will serve seven elementary schools after the elimination of one elementary music position in the 5,800-student district. It's unclear whether the music teachers will be able to teach kindergarten music. Barbara Delegato has been teaching music in Forest Grove for nearly 30 years, most recently split between two small rural elementary schools. This year, she'll travel among three schools to work with more than 450 students, introducing them to scales and fractions, musical notes and the history of music, xylophones and drumming. But this year, they'll be no evening music programs, no all-school musicals. "In the small rural communities, it's a tradition," Delegato said. "But I physically won't be there enough to do auditions, practices. I still see students who come up to me and remember those programs. They were things that helped kids move on, helped them do better in school, stay in school. Those relationships might not be built and that's what children need.... I love my job but I think it's a scary path we're on." -- Kim Melton From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of de Bivort Lawrence Sent: Wednesday, September 08, 2010 5:59 PM To: RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION; [email protected] Subject: Re: [Futurework] To the Jewish, Chinese and Cherokees -- and Muslims -- on the list. This is also the month of Ramadan, a four-week period of prayer and meditation incumbent upon all Muslims. The period includes fasting -- no liquids, no food -- from dawn 'til sunset. During this period, the entire Quraan is recited from memory. Ramadan ends with the sighting of the new moon (probably tomorrow) and ends with special congregational prayers and a community feast on Friday. During Ramadan many Muslims give the Zakat -- large anonymous donations to the poor. Ramadan kareem! Assalaamu aleikum. Lawry On Sep 8, 2010, at 5:34 PM, Ray Harrell wrote: HAPPY HOLY DAYS! REH _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
_______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
