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Post by marijose on Feb 16, 2005 11:54:13 GMT -5
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Discussed education in America with a friend yesterday. As the information age turns into the conceptual age, kids who do not have art and music classes will be ill-equipped to think in sweeping concepts. Accounting and code-writing is getting out-sourced and if countries like India teach their children the Arts, they could very well make the transformation to the conceptual age in a couple of decades, while American children might struggle to make that transition. Watching MTV does not count as getting a music education!
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Post by marijose on Feb 16, 2005 11:57:10 GMT -5
Education...a subject near and dear to my heart. I'm alarmed by the trend towards "teaching to the standardized tests" in schools as we transition towards the conceptual age. I have asked my kids' elementary school principal to exempt my son from these silly tests, he has a developmental disability and apparently the last time they tried to have him take one of these tests he made a beeline for the door (I told the principal I would have done the same thing.) I don't seem to have a valid reason to exempt my daughter, though. What seems to be happening as time during schooldays is increasingly spent getting kids ready for these tests is that whatever they can't get to during class they bring home as homework. I have to put my foot down at least once a week to make sure the amount of nightly homework is within the parameters established by the school district.
My daughter starts middle school in the Fall and our public middle school has an International Baccalaureate Program (http://www.ibo.org) curriculum. It sounds like a neat program - below is a little information about it and the role of the arts & music within the curriculum. I'd love to hear from anyone with experience with this curriculum. Also apologies if this post is too long...I tend to write too much. Adam, let me know if I'm out of line! ---------------------------------------
The International Baccalaureate Organization aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect. These [International Baccalaureate] programmes encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.
The study of the arts in the Middle Years Programme curriculum offers a distinctive way of learning, where seeing, feeling, hearing, thinking and creating are combined in a powerful visual, aural, tactile and affective communication. Music is also part of the arts subject group.
A personal project in the arts can provide an excellent opportunity to encourage creativity, enabling students to research, explore and experiment with ways of expression and communication through an artistic medium. This is in line with how the arts in the Middle Years Programme place a strong emphasis on the creative process and on reflection.
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Post by Matt Callahan on Feb 16, 2005 11:59:39 GMT -5
Our local school system is suffering from low enrollment (so they say) and is planning to cut the elective courses. This includes my daughters orchestra class an all other music programs. The community is reacting but we will have to wait and see.
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Post by Adam Solomon on Feb 16, 2005 16:00:52 GMT -5
Hey, MTV does c--oh, who am I kidding? Hey Maria--same Maria I've been talking to over e-mail for a little while, it looks like? Glad you could make it over to the forum and get in some nice posts Anyway, good luck with both your kids getting closer to middle school! IB...well, I wouldn't recommend it, personally. I was actually unaware it was offered so early (6th grade, I'm assuming? Maybe 7th, depending on the school?), so for middle school and possibly freshman year of high school, it might not be a bad option. But once she's in high school and the school starts offering AP courses, that's definitely the way to go if she wants a challenge. I've just heard that--from someone my age, a H.S. junior, who takes IB courses at his school--that AP is all-around better, though I don't remember many of the specifics. I think there are a lot of unreasonable and unnecessary demands, and most IB courses take more periods than regular courses do, if I remember correctly...but, you won't have to worry about AP until 10th grade, 9th in very rare cases at the earliest, so IB should work for now And you think you're writing too much? Try talking to me sometimes! Or reading my blog...your self-confidence will soar, hehe. Oh, and don't listen to that little blurb on IB's site--I'm getting all these letters from colleges, some really great schools that I have every intention to apply to, and some terrible schools that I'd never even consider. But if you just read their letters, you'd think the University of Montana was almost as good as Caltech...lol....talk to people who have actually gone through it, and try to get some outside, 3rd party research. Only way to do it As for standardized tests....well, I agree with you completely. Say...do you think you can convince the College Board to stop giving SATs before...March 12? For...no reason in particular... /me looks around nervously Matt--there's only one thing you can do now--go out and vote! And get your friends on it, too The great thing about local politics, especially with education issues, is that you really can make a difference, to be frighteningly cliché. My school, for example, offers independent study in calculus and physics for when a student can't take any more classes in those subjects. I just got approved to take Physics AP independent study next year (for the first time in 5 years that at least our school has done it), so now I have to make sure that everyone goes out and passes the budget in May, because that course being run is contigent on that. You can do the same thing--it's just crazy to cut out all music programs, or all electives in general. I don't even want to get started on that, without electives, there's pretty much no way for a kid to know just what they want to do with their lives...and it doesn't help you get accepted into college, either....go out and fight!
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Post by marijose on Feb 16, 2005 20:29:18 GMT -5
Matt, school board members are mainly worried about being re-elected, so they will vote for/against whatever program their constituents love/hate. The views of the school district's PTA and teachers' associations weigh in a great deal with our school board, and they generally vote whichever way these groups tell them to vote. And believe me, these groups do a great deal of lobbying. It might be helpful to search a database of academic, peer-reviewed education journals (if you don't have access to this at work your local public library should know how to access these journals) to show the positive effect of school-based music training on children, and share these articles w/your school board and PTA/teachers' associations. That is just crazy about cutting out all music programs. In my daughter's grade kids have to pick either chorus, orchestra or strings. Music lessons and instrument rental are free. *steps off soapbox* Adam, yes, it's the same Maria. I thought Maria might already be taken as a nick on this board and Mari Jose is what my uncle in Barcelona used to call me when I was little. Thanks for your insight on the IB program. For middle school they do the curriculum but there are no tests like the IB high school tests. We don't have a choice since the whole middle school is IB. The school has students from 56 countries, which is really neat, so that is why the implemented an international curriculum. SATs are a blurr, but here was my strategy for the GRE (make sure your parents aren't reading this). First try: studied for months, took sample tests, got a good night's sleep the night before. Second try: did absolutely no previous prep work, stayed out partying until the bars closed, took test a few hours later and scored several hundred points higher.
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Post by Adam Solomon on Feb 17, 2005 13:45:19 GMT -5
Matt--If you need access to any peer-reviewed journal articles, give me the abstract and I can probably get my hands on the article... Maria--I have first SATs in less than a month, don't be giving me ideas now!
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Post by marijose on Feb 17, 2005 22:30:06 GMT -5
Matt, here is one database on education research: www.eric.ed.gov/I did a basic search with music and benefits as keywords and got a lot of hits. Seems to be there is solid research on the demonstrated benefits of music education in schools.
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Post by Matt Callahan on Feb 18, 2005 16:15:23 GMT -5
Thank you both. At the orchestra concert last night, they announced that the music program escaped the choping block. Now we need to see what does get cut.
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Post by Adam Solomon on Feb 18, 2005 18:49:03 GMT -5
Great job, both of you! And Matt, if there are any other egregious cuts, don't hesitate to use some resources like that one Maria gave you. Use a peer-reviewed journal and they won't know what hit them! hehe
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