I'm wondering if Neil Peart has seen this kid yet.
I can recall how music class was an integral part of school ( you know, that evil, Marxist, Communist, Anti-American conclave of Leftist trolls ) and you actually were encouraged to learn an instrument in 5th grade. For me, it was a wonderful time in childhood that seems to be lost in modern school curriculum.
And while it's not even remotely realistic that every child will be as talented as this kid at such a young age, this should deter parent from encouraging their child from expressing themselves through music. Had I known that drumming would have been even fractionally this cool when I was in middle school, I would have picked that up instead of the saxophone.
A Blog Version Of The Inside Of My Head. The place where politics, film, the media, music, pop culture, and random topics collide in an orgy of neo-philisophical randomness that would make your mother scream.
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3 comments:
Have you seen this little girl playing YYZ on the organ? She seems to have at least drum accompaniment, but from what little musical knowledge I have she appears to be playing most of it. Watch her feet. Man. I can't even get two hands to work together!
Seriously Troy, far too often you have me then you lose me when discussing things of this nature. I shudder to think that you every response to things of this nature is that it was perpetrated by "Leftists", "Marxists", "Socialists", "Pacifists", et al. We both attended public schools in - what I believe - was a fairly poor environment, and we both ended up on complete opposites of the socio-political spectrum. We knew, even then, that things could be different or even better, but we still have music classes, art, and opportunities to help boost our individuals skills in a variety of areas. I don't recall someone like Mrs. Wolford or Mrs. Earle in high school being too concerned with what the local teachers union had to say about their salary that it kept them from knowing that no student left their classroom less educated than when they first arrived. There are many aspects of public education that are being contorted by conservatives as well - just take a look at the Texas Board Of Education. Their text writing practices and purchasing power of books across the entire educational spectrum literally dictates what kids are taught all across the country. But this is really a debate better served outside the comments section. I'd love to hear more of you thoughts on this, seeing as how you are a teacher yourself.
It's true in this case. Look, my wife is a teacher, and is a member of the teacher's union. We get their newsletter. They are a leftist organization, and preach leftist politics in their newsletter. They don't even try to pretend to be neutral. They are not primarily concerned with pay raises or even better insurance (my wife has the worst insurance she has ever had as an employee). No, they are concerned with protecting bad teachers from being fired, fighting against such things as merit pay (which Obama, to his credit, has argued for), school choice, etc., and lbbying to prevent people like me from being able to teach public school (with my Ph.D., I cannot teach English or humanities unless I get teacher certification -- but I can of course teach college and, thus, teach future teachers). These are all the kinds of things that the teachers' union is interested in doing.
Historically, the political left -- including Marxists -- have emphasized material economic conditions. Marxism considers the liberal arts, including the arts themselves, to be of at best secondary importance -- part of the "superstructure" that emerges out of material conditions. They are mostly considered to be superfluous entertainments of the bourgeoisie, and primarily act to keep the working man from thinking too much about his material conditions. Thus, they act in an anti-revolutionary fashion, and must be eliminated where and when possible. Since material conditions are what matter, there is an emphasis on math and science over everything else. This is indeed what we are seeing happen (Texas is an interesting exception, as the arts are actually required throughout school, and you have to have classes in the arts to graduate high school).
Indeed, there are contortions everywhere. The left in this country have complained not about Bush's creation of No Child Left Behind and its federalization of education, but that it wasn't funded enough. Conservatives fill the textbooks with nonsense about creationism and intelligent design; liberals fill the textbooks with pointless pictures, "alternative" spellings, "creative" math, etc. The conservatives fight against facts while liberals fight against truth. Liberals create a horrible learning environment by throwing out any and all real discipline. Nobody has a wrong answer because that would harm their self-esteem. Education suffers because of it.
There is indeed much that can be said about what needs to be done in education. Let me reform education, and I guarantee that neither conservatives nor liberals will be happy in the least -- but our students will learn, and they will learn facts, theories, and truth. They will learn how to think and to live disciplined, ethical lives. They will learn cosmology and biological evolution, economics, history, psychology, literature, logic and philosophy, music, art, and writing, and math. And they will learn more of it, and learn it faster than they do now. And they won't be taught self-esteem -- they will earn it by learning and knowing they are educated.
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