(Music Rant)
It's a good day when you actually get to vent your frustrations about the stupidity that is standardized testing.
In Intro to Mus Ed this morning, we discussed teaching music, and saving the arts in schools, along with what the advantages of studying music are. There are a huge amount of things that there are to consider- inclusion, the Mozart Effect, leadership skills one learns by being in a musical group- I could go on and on! I know that for myself being in music changed me to be a better person. I know for a fact that I wouldn't be at Baylor if I hadn't been in band, and had my butt kicked into gear by a band director who believed in me and knew I could do better than I was doing right then. But, back to standardized testing. There are (amazingly!) some teachers who don't think that music will get the "recognition" or "placement" we deserve until there's some kind of standardized test for it. Personally, I think those people should should....yeah. I'm not gonna go there. But it is impossible to standardize music. Where would you start? The closest thing to standardized testing that I can think of that we have
is UIL, and that just starts to show the difficulty that there would be in attempting to standardize music. And that's just the logistical arguments against it!
To standardize music would be to take everything that makes it music out. You cannot say that Picasso failed the Art TAKS because his style is so much different from Rembrandt. That is art blasphemy. Philip Glass is not less of a composer because he doesn't stick to standard melodic ideas. If you started to grade people on their ability to play a standardized piece to a standardized level, you would suck the soul out of music.
Sigh. That's just something I feel very strongly about. I think that fine arts should be every bit as important as the "core" classes, if not. If someone cannot do math, it does not mean they are less of a person. If someone cannot write to a standard, they may be brilliant at the clarinet, or the french horn. Maybe if some kind of expression was more highly encouraged in our schools, the suicide rate would drop. Drugs would drop. Maybe, if (I'm dreaming now) the arts (not just music. Art, Dance, Theater, Debate....) were made "cool", made a part of the culture, then we, as a nation, would be happier and more productive, and more creative. Who knows what kind of innovations and inventions we could create, if we all were allowed to think a little freer?
I've finally gotten my theory homework done, and read half of the chapter for religion and the whole supplemental. There's just so much Biblical (New Testament) history that a person can take in a night when they have a headache, just spent three hours on theory, and is grumpy. Not that I'm grumpy, I'm just the first two. Well, that, and tired.
I had a horrible decision earlier- new Burn Notice, or new Ace of Cakes. I went with Ace of Cakes, on the principle that I can always watch Burn Notice online tomorrow. I think I made the right choice.
I need to shower, and sleep. I've got from 9:00-12:00 to study for my Rel quiz, and I've got a feeling I'm going to need all that time.
-k-
In Intro to Mus Ed this morning, we discussed teaching music, and saving the arts in schools, along with what the advantages of studying music are. There are a huge amount of things that there are to consider- inclusion, the Mozart Effect, leadership skills one learns by being in a musical group- I could go on and on! I know that for myself being in music changed me to be a better person. I know for a fact that I wouldn't be at Baylor if I hadn't been in band, and had my butt kicked into gear by a band director who believed in me and knew I could do better than I was doing right then. But, back to standardized testing. There are (amazingly!) some teachers who don't think that music will get the "recognition" or "placement" we deserve until there's some kind of standardized test for it. Personally, I think those people should should....yeah. I'm not gonna go there. But it is impossible to standardize music. Where would you start? The closest thing to standardized testing that I can think of that we have
is UIL, and that just starts to show the difficulty that there would be in attempting to standardize music. And that's just the logistical arguments against it!
To standardize music would be to take everything that makes it music out. You cannot say that Picasso failed the Art TAKS because his style is so much different from Rembrandt. That is art blasphemy. Philip Glass is not less of a composer because he doesn't stick to standard melodic ideas. If you started to grade people on their ability to play a standardized piece to a standardized level, you would suck the soul out of music.
Sigh. That's just something I feel very strongly about. I think that fine arts should be every bit as important as the "core" classes, if not. If someone cannot do math, it does not mean they are less of a person. If someone cannot write to a standard, they may be brilliant at the clarinet, or the french horn. Maybe if some kind of expression was more highly encouraged in our schools, the suicide rate would drop. Drugs would drop. Maybe, if (I'm dreaming now) the arts (not just music. Art, Dance, Theater, Debate....) were made "cool", made a part of the culture, then we, as a nation, would be happier and more productive, and more creative. Who knows what kind of innovations and inventions we could create, if we all were allowed to think a little freer?
I've finally gotten my theory homework done, and read half of the chapter for religion and the whole supplemental. There's just so much Biblical (New Testament) history that a person can take in a night when they have a headache, just spent three hours on theory, and is grumpy. Not that I'm grumpy, I'm just the first two. Well, that, and tired.
I had a horrible decision earlier- new Burn Notice, or new Ace of Cakes. I went with Ace of Cakes, on the principle that I can always watch Burn Notice online tomorrow. I think I made the right choice.
I need to shower, and sleep. I've got from 9:00-12:00 to study for my Rel quiz, and I've got a feeling I'm going to need all that time.
-k-