School Music - Fighting the cuts

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The R3 morning schedule format(aka bleeding chunks) might be easier to take especially for younger children....

This occurred to me earlier - that the pre-noon schedules are wonderfully suited to a 10-year-old's attention span; but I think they'd find the presentation styles a bit patronising.

Having professional musicians coming into school(I'm thinking here of orchestras/ensembles which do short residencies in the wilds of not-London, and go into schools as part of an outreach programme) is perhaps better at engaging the interest of pupils, not least if they can get close to and handle the instruments?

[Serial_Apologist]

I think it’s also relevant to remember that many people - children, and probably also includes some of us, have the attention span of a gnat. Expecting kids to sit through Sibelius’s violin concerto, while great for some, might also be considered an act of sustained torture by others.

The ability to pay attention has to be inculcated, in the same way as do awareness, sensitivities and sharing. These capacities do not automatically evolve in a society in which so much is individual-centred in contradiction with values demanding communal norms and compliance, with an ever-increasing stress on time being synonymous with money. It was always the case that children found difficulty with boredom in maintaining sustained attention without personal physical involvement, owing to their need to expend energy, a vital part of physical development. The problem as I see it is that if the everyday needs deemed valuable to society are catered for by smart phones, the internet and so forth, the perceived means of developing natural inner restraints will come to be seen as of decreasing relevance to young people.

[doversoul1]

Leaving aside the point that discovering that Cats is intensely boring is a valid educational experience - "boredom" will be inevitable for some children in every educational activity. In total I spent about a week of my life being bored on various sports fields, and Science laboratories. Suffering boredom and embarrassment is part of the educational experience: it helps us define who we are - and how to devise strategies for coping with boredom and embarrassment! And, just as my fascination for all things scientific wasn't dimmed by my experiences in school, so the kids who enjoyed The Three-Cornered Hat will take that away with them. And, at 10, I think that I would have found Sibelius' Violin Concerto boring - just as I would have found King Lear boring, or Das Kapital. That's the teacher's fault, not the Live performance's.

And were all your classmates as "embarrassed" by the touring theatre company's performance as you were? Were others not intrigued by what they encountered (for the first time?) and move on to a lifelong love of Live Theatre? Boring some children is a risk worth taking occasionally in order to make larger groups of children experience something they may never otherwise encounter - or even frequently, so that your 10-year-old self could have seen different theatrical styles, more appealing to you.

You ask how other children responded to this performance. It is almost impossible to think now, as a small village in Japan in the 1950s was simply an alien world for us now. Television was unheard of, even radio was a rare thing. To us, acting meant once-a-year school drama day when each class learned to performed a short play. Seeing adults acting* on an ordinary school day was, when I think about it now, too alien for the children to comprehend. I don’t remember anyone talking about it afterwords.
*there was no tradition of ‘natural’ drama in Japan. Theatre was a place for highly stylized performance like Kabuki or Noh.

Talking about inspiring teachers, into this village school, a young male teacher arrived one year and took a class year above me (the oldest). He taught the class to paint abstract pictures (the paintings were displayed in the hall) and for the school drama day, he turned the class into a choir who sung in (probably) three parts. I had never heard anything so, well, musical. I was very much hoping that he would have us the following year but he took the year below us and this class performed something almost like a musical (not that I knew then) on the school drama day. I have no contact with any of these ‘children’ and cannot tell you what they thought about their experiences but I found out later that the old art and music teacher got rid of him after the two years. Whilst I had no direct influence from this teacher, I think those two performances definitely taught me that there was something higher/more in music than what I knew at school then. Yes, the Magic of Live Performance.

[Serial_Apologist]

Thank you for this fascinating story, DS.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Thank you for this fascinating story, DS.

[MrGongGong]

You ask how other children responded to this performance. It is almost impossible to think now, as a small village in Japan in the 1950s was simply an alien world for us now. Television was unheard of, even radio was a rare thing. To us, acting meant once-a-year school drama day when each class learned to performed a short play. Seeing adults acting* on an ordinary school day was, when I think about it now, too alien for the children to comprehend. I don’t remember anyone talking about it afterwords.
*there was no tradition of ‘natural’ drama in Japan. Theatre was a place for highly stylized performance like Kabuki or Noh.

Talking about inspiring teachers, into this village school, a young male teacher arrived one year and took a class year above me (the oldest). He taught the class to paint abstract pictures (the paintings were displayed in the hall) and for the school drama day, he turned the class into a choir who sung in (probably) three parts. I had never heard anything so, well, musical. I was very much hoping that he would have us the following year but he took the year below us and this class performed something almost like a musical (not that I knew then) on the school drama day. I have no contact with any of these ‘children’ and cannot tell you what they thought about their experiences but I found out later that the old art and music teacher got rid of him after the two years. Whilst I had no direct influence from this teacher, I think those two performances definitely taught me that there was something higher/more in music than what I knew at school then. Yes, the Magic of Live Performance.

Interesting

Do you think that music is "universal" in it's ability to connect with people?
and if so, which musics ?
What was what Murray Schafer and others would call the "acoustic ecology" of a small village in Japan in the 1950's ?
What other musics were familiar / unfamiliar and how was the unfamiliar introduced?

[Once Was 4]

Somebody has noted that boredom is part and parcel of any educational experience. Sad but true (sorry if I misquoted though).

But we do have a situation in music teaching where quick results based on shaky foundations are sought after. I well remember, as a Peri in Rochdale during the 70s, a Headmaster saying "if I come to visit your lesson I want to hear tunes, different tunes each week and no scales and stuff like that!" The irony is that this particular Headmaster produced two offspring who became very distinguished in the arts - one an opera administrator and one a Radio 2 personality; I do not think that they will have achieved that by such a facile approach.

I was taught the horn in the 60s by Wilfrid Heaton, the Salvationist composer whose works are still played, whose approach to all his pupils was rigerous to say the least. He would not get away with it now. Instead of the old tutor books, repleat with exercises to give a sure foundation, we have daft ditties illustrated by silly cartoons.

And I am dealing with some problem children - nice kids but totally in control of their own education which is just not right. I was part of a conversation last Saturday where even a young, modern, teacher full of the latest training and theories openly said that "what some of these kids need is the back of somebody's hand!" having nearly been driven to tears by a meltdown that even the parents could not control Yes, I know, shock horror for some of you. In the end I am retired and just trying to still be part of things and helping to build a future (that and the money helps the pension!). But what does the future hold if it is built on quick fixes? Put it another way I am just an old git and will shut up now but, please support music in education if you believe in anything other than fancy theories.

[greenilex]

Recently on this forum someone shared a video of Chinese children singing solfa. It was rigorous but in no way tedious. Does rigour necessarily imply misery? One would hope not.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Edit: Some posts on the cultural dominance (or otherwise) of Western Music - a fascinating discussion in its own right - have been moved to a bespoke Thread, so that this one can be kept for news and discussion of "developments" in Music provision in schools.

[MrGongGong]

Edit: Some posts on the cultural dominance (or otherwise) of Western Music - a fascinating discussion in its own right - have been moved to a bespoke Thread, so that this one can be kept for news and discussion of "developments" in Music provision in schools.

Makes sense to me

[oddoneout]

This occurred to me earlier - that the pre-noon schedules are wonderfully suited to a 10-year-old's attention span; but I think they'd find the presentation styles a bit patronising.

Indeed, but I was considering the music element in my use of the term 'format'. I would hope that teachers could come up with a better alternative to the talk element than that foisted on us all too frequently by the R3 establishment.

[MrGongGong]

Some folks think that all we need to do is to drop CDs of "great" music from helicopters onto schools and then children will somehow "discover" music when their teachers simply play it.
One of the problems in music education is that folks for whom the discovery of music came when a teacher played them something in assembly and forever after they were hooked on the oratorios of Elgar think that their own experience isn't odd or unusual.
Those of us who are consumed by music(s) are the ones who are really strange and odd and our own experience isn't typical.

[MrGongGong]

(What is it with the cr*p stock photos ?)

https://www.rhinegold.co.uk/music_teacher/new-model-music-curriculum-only-had-single-bidder/?fbclid=IwAR0DeCgisl57lExzUQS2cVQAGImSTjYn5D_OkpQMD7bN4nXftfaVSr5VJmY

[oddoneout]

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/apr/02/school-music-cuts-inequality-demoralised-teachers

Nothing new in this, but I include it because of this quote

One respondent quoted a letter written by a head to parents, which stated: “Music is a hobby, it is not a career. It will not be supported by the school. I will not allow children to leave school to take graded exams. We are only supporting children’s learning.”

On which basis why teach sport?
The final paragraph with the statement from DfE well illustrates the disconnect between policy/official party line and the reality experienced by teachers and pupils. The repeated line of 'we are throwing more money at it' as a stock response to everything from education to health to - well you name it - is increasingly backfiring as more and more people then ask 'well what's the money being used for?' as their personal experience is of ever worsening services.

[MrGongGong]

https://www.theguardian.com/educatio...lised-teachers

Nothing new in this, but I include it because of this quote

On which basis why teach sport?
The final paragraph with the statement from DfE well illustrates the disconnect between policy/official party line and the reality experienced by teachers and pupils. The repeated line of 'we are throwing more money at it' as a stock response to everything from education to health to - well you name it - is increasingly backfiring as more and more people then ask 'well what's the money being used for?' as their personal experience is of ever worsening services.

Blimey, a report written by someone who actually KNOWS about music education?

https://www.musiciansunion.org.uk/StateOfPlay