tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375681131276548542.post9125593695851955952..comments2024-02-27T10:53:04.581+01:00Comments on paperpools: best news in a long timeHelen DeWitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07619602559096610012noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5375681131276548542.post-91639535737184166892007-10-28T14:12:00.000+00:002007-10-28T14:12:00.000+00:00That is a good one, nice to see an encouraging sto...That is a good one, nice to see an encouraging story for a change...<BR/><BR/>My mother's an elementary-school music teacher (of great genius, in my opinion!). She was trained first as a pianist at the Royal Academy of Music and then as a Montessori teacher, and sort of combined the two to specialize in K-6. She does quite wonderful things with her kids (they all learn to read music and play the recorder & ring handbells and such, often by way of musical games of one kind or another; private lessons are separate/optional, but there's a lot of stuff integrated with the curriculum, like African drumming or medieval music when the middle ages are being studied etc.), but it's awful thinking about how few schools have that sort of thing.<BR/><BR/>(One of the funnier & more appealing things she does is run the lower-school orchestra--this involves thinking about what the 40 or so kids she's got, say 7-8 on up to 11-12, play and how well they play it--so that she is always orchestrating music for, you know, 1 quite accomplished cellist but who can't read music because of having learned via Suzuki, 3 beginning flutists who can only play three notes, a decent clarinetist, etc. etc.).<BR/><BR/>I heard a story from a colleague's wife (whose son plays the violin very well) about the tragedy that has followed the largescale abandoning of music lesson int he NYC private schools--she described visiting a warehouse in one of the boroughs that was just heartbreakingly full of quarter- and half-size violins....<BR/><BR/>There are various programs round the place trying to remedy this, but it will take serious government investment rather than just private. The trouble is that a lot of people feel that music is optional--personally I would say that next step down from the actual technical skills of reading and writing, musical literacy is at least as important as learning about history or anything else (and of course the two can be integrated)...<BR/><BR/>all right, overly long comment, sorry! This topic is close to my heart!Jenny Davidsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02295436498255927522noreply@blogger.com