Rendering Unto Caesar: Bonsai Education‏

[sophia_sadek]

The other day a bonsai sakura plant showed up in the lobby of the building where I live. It brought back memories of my time in public elementary school music class singing the Japanese ode to the sakura tree. I asked a young woman who works for the property management company if she had music classes in her elementary school experience. It did

Comments

[pastorlenny]

This is why there is no good music in Black churches.

[sophia_sadek]

Are the "Black" churches the ones run by the "black" Jesuits?

[policraticus]

Seriously. What does the Roman Church know about good music? It isn't like they'd employ someone like JS Bach, amirite?

[johnny9fingers]

No, but they have had the odd Palestrina or Allegri. And even good ol' Protestant Bach managed to dash off a Mass in B minor.

[dwer]

[rimpala]

"AFLAC! AFLAAAAC! AF! LAC!"

"ugh..."

[telemann]

What do you think about the tendency for public education to emphasize the mechanics of arithmetic and grammar while falling short in the development of broader skills?

Because we're from the British tradition, where if you don't learn how to make money from the thing, its pointless. So music is considered utterly frivolous in our education system . Which is completely antithetical to how Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Austria, and other European countries see music as part of their heritage. I keep bringing up the El Sistema program as a great template of achieving social change via music education. The program is now active in several cities in the United States, like in east LA, Birmingham Alabama, Philadelphia, Chicago, Brooklyn, Boston, Virginia Beach, Las Vegas.

[sophia_sadek]

Thanks for the pointer. Your observation on British utilitarianism resonates with a remark I made to a friend about how English is a more rat-race oriented language than is Spanish.

The McGuire article is interesting. The songs in the list of 42 that I think children could learn most from wound up in table 6.

[telemann]

El Sistema has quite a few chapters in California, which is great I think.

One in Stockton (http://www.harmonystockton.org/)

One in San Francisco (http://www.musicteamsf.org/)

And another in San Rafael (http://www.enrichinglivesthroughmusic.org/www.enrichinglivesthroughmusic.org/HOME.html)

[sophia_sadek]

It is good to see that they supplement the embarrassing music curriculum at our public schools.

[underlankers]

[sophia_sadek]

Manga can be an educational instrument. I remember using Classics Illustrated as a sort of Cliff Notes.

[geezer_also]

Classics Illustrated FTW.....the only way I could get thru Dickens.

[sophia_sadek]

For some reason Dickens made me feel as if I were locked in a workhouse and forced to do menial labor.

[notmrgarrison]

I now know how to say "vegetable", "sisters", "tomato", and to some degree "asapagus" in Japanese.

[telemann]

J Pop on SNL is a hoot.

[dwer]

haaaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaaa!

[sophia_sadek]

Ha, ha. Gai-jin pretending to be Nihon-jin.