| Further Information: - Concert Bookings - Digital Press Kit - Personal Violin Tuition |
Feb
22
Music Education Will Become Ever More Important
Filed Under Education, Future of Music, World Culture |
Why? Well, it’s all about the relationship of creativity and post-industrialism.
Throughout the globe, there’s a hierarchy in education. At the top, Maths and Languages (and sometimes Sciences). After that, Humanities. And at the bottom of the scale of priority, the Arts.
Over here in the UK, there’s been a lot of intelligent comment about the death of music education in schools and the well-meaning though arguably diluted government attempts to combat it. But when experienced musicians like Julian Lloyd Webber, who intuitively know the importance of music, argue that music education is important, they usually don’t offer an argument that’s more convincing than ‘the Classical Music tradition is too precious to lose‘.
This on it’s own is NOT a strong enough way to convince world governments of the importance of music (and Drama, Dance and Art) education.
Music education should not be promoted as a way to ‘preserve a tradition’, or as a vague ‘contributor to social cohesion’. Its importance (as well as the obvious emotional importance of music) lies in how it nurtures creativity in an increasingly fragmented yet globalized society. Nowadays, children must be educated not as they were in the 20th Century, when essentially they were being groomed for static jobs, but instead in a way that enables them to create solutions to problems years before we can possibly know what those problems might be!
The most brilliant, brilliant explanation of this phenomenon is made by Sir Ken Robinson at 2006’s Technology, Education & Design conference. I promise you that a few minutes spent watching this video of his speech will be a fantastic investment of your time, not to mention great entertainment and inspiration.
Briefly, I’ll explain the premise.
The digital revolution has brought about a world where we are faced with constant change, and a rate of change that is ever-increasing. It’s only possible to live in a state of constant change (or chaos, if you like!), if you are comfortable with accepting that things never stay the same.
With a 20th-Century attitude that tends towards permanence and rigid categorization, this is very difficult. And it’s why people who refuse to change, find the modern world increasingly hard to live in.
There’s no stopping what’s happening, and the only practical response that we can make is to adapt. A key part of this is to adapt education so that future generations will be able to exist happily in a constant state of change.
This is not possible in a society where mistakes are stigmatized, because it represses the ability to take risks and chances. However, without risking a mistake, creativity is limited.
If we’re educating people for a future about which we have no clue, then we need to emphasize creativity over academic achievement, and celebrate rather than pour disdain on mistakes.
Technology and the explosion of population will make degrees and other categorizations increasingly irrelevant. What will set us free will be the celebration of the human imagination above all. A central part of that is the celebration of music.
“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up” - Pablo Picasso
Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.