Posted by Tom Mason on March 04, 2003 at 22:10:38:
In Reply to: Re: New thread-----old topic part 2 posted by What's the problem? on March 04, 2003 at 12:26:52:
I disagree with some of your statement, although I would in theory agree with your premise in regards to the overall goal of teaching arts in school.
There is not a prominent place in the mainstream American secondary educational system where music teachers have the luxury of teaching to the primary goal of enhansing the creativity and imagination of the student. If that were so, each music student would have the ability to take private instruction as well as class ensembles. There are very few high schools that afford themselves collectively the opportunity to have more than a rudimentary small period of time each day to cram the numerous aspects of creating music into 50 minutes.
Teamwork skills are not emphasised in sports, contrary to popular belief. If you are a starter, then you will get the team work ethic drilled into you. If you ae one of the many bench sitters, B team members, or just there to practice against, then you are being either drilled on individual skills or being used as fodder for the A team starters. Either way, you are always close to being taken off of the team, for some reason or another.
As Mr. Denney has pointed out, the military is very good at teaching reliance on your team members and contributing to the success of the unit.
I would tell you that if we do not emphasize the side effects and be redundant, we will be lost in the pile of classes that are not offered at schools in the future. Teaching the artistic aspects of music classes to the extent that we disregard the sides will kill your classes. Being in the sight of other disciplines and teaching artistic aspects at the same time works.
Tom Mason