[Audio Empire]

On Tue, 28 Aug 2012 19:53:25 -0700, Gary Eickmeier wrote
(in article ):

"Audio Empire" wrote in message
...

Why this is, in my humble opinion criminally negligent on the part of
educators is because they underestimate the importance of great music
in the education of our young. When cutting curricula to the bone to
save costs, do they cut US literature or English literature from the
program? No, but they say that few people grow-up liking classical
music.

Audio_Empire

My daughter plays the cello. Her grade school, middle school, and now high
school all have orchestras and bands for the students to learn string
instruments or band instruments. They play classical and jazz, and are
pretty good at it. I'm talking public school system, not performing arts
schools, and they have county wide competitions for best orchestras and
bands. My daughter attends Strings Workshop every summer, a two week
resident course taught at the local college by the local symphony personnel,
including the conductor. She also plays in the Youth Orchestra at First
Methodist, under the baton of the same symphony conductor. She is always
second chair in all of these orchestras, first chair going to the
conductor's daughter, same age and quite a prodigy.

All of this is going on in central Florida, not New York or San Francisco.
The stories of our schools' demise are premature.

Gary Eickmeier




You misunderstand my point, I think. I'm not talking about music programs
like school bands, glee clubs or orchestras, I'm talking about musical
appreciation classes, I.E. classes where ordinary kids get exposed to great
music, the same way middle school and high school english classes expose
ordinary kids to US literature and English literature, and in some cases
World literature. These classes don't teach these kids to write great
literature, or how to perform Shakespeare, but rather they are merely exposed
to the stuff. Out of every literature class, some kids come away with a
lifelong interest in literary culture. And when schools taught music
appreciation, some kids come away with a lifelong interest in great music,
and even those who don't will at least have been EXPOSED to it. Where do they
get that opportunity today? BTW, I'm a product of a high school music
appreciation class. I'm one of those who came away from that class with
lifelong love that started me on a journey of discovery that isn't finished
yet. When I was young and MOST public schools had music appreciation classes,
it was said that 10% of the US population bought classical recordings. The
last time I saw any figures on it was probably 20 years ago when it was down
to quite a bit less than 1%.