To Fergie, I agree with what you say for the most part, but if my daughter's elementary school did not offer music,art and PE as well as the three R's (something that is neccessary to function I agree) she would go nuts in school just hammering out reading, writing and math and she is an A student. I am a public school teacher and professional bass player of 25 years, I have taught all ages (Elem,Middle and HS) and have seen with my own eyes the NEED for the arts at every level. In today's world cuts are a brutal reality we all have lived the past few years in all facets of life not just the arts. But to make the arts go extinct in a public school for ANY reason would be catastrophic in relation to student acheivement in the other academic subjects - the Three R's. I cant speak for other countries because I have not experienced it, but I have in the US in both rural and urban school districts and I say the need for arts and PE are an abosolute need, not a luxury.
Totally agree 100% but these decisions are not mine, or for that fact anybody who understands the arts. All the decisions do is take away the responsibility for it, rather than fund it regardless. Because of its very nature arts funding is not quantifyable thing in the short term it is a long term. Its a life long thing that stays with those who have access to it that they vist and re-visit in there lifes. Any point i make is not nessesary my view of belief in a subject, but a conclussion based on what is presented. I see things from many angles but like i said i may not agree with what i see, but i have to address it.
It is never extinct, only not funded, if you have the money to pay for it then it is there. The points made i take and agree, but the point is funding....who pays for this and to what degree do other funded activities compare.
PE or sport is there for free for anyone that wants to. go to a park kick a ball, bat a ball, run jump, swim etc all there no funding needed. Music can be seen in the same way, you can do it out of school hours so no funding needed.
So what happend in my case?
Why did only four of us decide on music?
How can my music teachers ask for funding and resources for 4 students in the whole school?
In the end i was the only one to get scholarship (three offers) and the only one who took music for a career choice. I turned the scholarships down.
In my school my music class had 4 pupils studing for higher music qualifactions. To that end i narrowed subjects to music, as i studied and played Tenor horn, math and English were mandatory and a mandatory science subject that was biology. To that end i had 4 periods of music a day(from an eight period day) i spent breaks and lunch hours in the music room. I played for three Silver bands through out the week and studies with the Scottish Youth Symphony Orchestra on Saturday mornings saw me seek out my music education, it was never given to me. All this till the age of 16 when i stopped and turned to bass, that was easy because i understood music and music principals.
So for me music is a definate in schools, but the question is one of who ultimately pays for it?..... in the financal sense or the spiritual one?
No money to spare.........but in the UK we can find the billions for a war in Iraq and Afganistan because politicians made decision that we should....... we pay for that.
