Baroness Warnock Right On Target About Music Education

[Ralph]

Let children blow their own trumpets

Numeracy and literacy are important, but having the chance to learn an instrument is just as vital

Mary Warnock
Sunday October 22, 2006
The Observer

The future of Britain's long and noble tradition of amateur music-making is facing a renewed crisis unless action is taken soon to protect sustained and progressive teaching in state schools.

Some might argue that, compared with numeracy and literacy, musical education is an optional extra for which it is perfectly reasonable that the rich should pay if they so wish. They would be wrong.

At a superficial level, most teachers would agree that becoming involved with music at school has a markedly good effect on pupils. They get satisfaction and confidence from the progressive acquisition of skills; they learn that they must be reliable and not let their fellow players or singers down; they learn the elements of professionalism, what it is to give a performance, how to avoid the shoddy or ill-prepared. All this is good and should be defended against the threat of a narrowly defined education, but it is not specific to music. Involvement in sports or acting can have the same effect. More significant is the nature of the music itself.

Nobody can deny how central a part music plays in the life of most children and adolescents; it is through listening to music that most of them indulge their tastes and fantasies and escape from what is horrible or boring into an area where their imagination is free. It is the purpose of education to extend the imagination, to open up new and infinite pleasures.

For many children, to learn an instrument is the beginning of this extension. To begin to understand how it is done adds a completely new dimension to their listening and, moreover, offers them a new means of expression. To try to perform as best they can becomes a new challenge and a source of non-boredom. The sense of infinite possibilities lies at the heart of good education; it is through music that many children can find this sense of the inexhaustible. To deprive children of such a permanent source of pleasure is to damage them.

Ten years ago, instrumental and vocal teaching in maintained schools was in crisis, following the delegation to individual schools of funding for music previously allocated to local authorities. But in 1999, the government appeared to have listened to the warnings of such bodies as the Music Education Council and established, in response, the Music Standards Fund to 'protect and expand local authority music services'.

In 2001, David Blunkett promised that 'over time' every primary-school child should have the opportunity to learn an instrument. In 2004, a government commitment was made for additional funding, to implement Blunkett's promise. The funding has now been deferred until 2007/8, while at the end of last year, Schools Minister Jacqui Smith, slipped in, almost unnoticed, the announcement that the money should again be allocated to individual schools, not local authorities.

David Blunkett's promise, doubtless well-intentioned, was ill-thought-out. The chance to start instrumental lessons at primary school is useless unless there is the possibility of continuing them for those pupils who show aptitude and enthusiasm, whatever instrument they choose or genre of music they prefer. This entails teaching in smaller and smaller groups, ending with one-to-one lessons; it entails proper arrangements for the hire or subsidised purchase of instruments; and the opportunity for orchestral, band and small ensemble playing and performance. All this is far more expensive than Blunkett foresaw.

More important, the kind of continuing education that initial access demands cannot be achieved by an individual school. District-wide administration of music services is essential.

First, it alone can provide a guarantee of standards. Many schools have no qualified musician as a full-time member of staff and no one, therefore, with the knowledge needed to supervise visiting teachers. Second, no school can maintain a stock of instruments adequate to the needs of its pupils. Third, an individual school can rarely provide opportunities for ensemble playing, without which instrumental teaching is pointless.

Finally, peripatetic teachers need their work to be organised centrally, in a collegiate atmosphere within which their own development is encouraged and their professionalism respected. All this became disastrously clear in the near-demise of local authority music in the 1990s.

In July, the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music published research that showed the vast gap between instrumental and vocal teaching in the independent and the maintained sectors. Pupils in independent schools are six times more likely to receive sustained and progressive instrumental teaching than those in state schools. In the heyday of local authority music, the Sixties and Seventies, the gap was nothing like so great; orchestras such as the National Youth Orchestra contained a remarkable mix in their membership.

Last week, a government-backed report recommended that singing should once again play an important role in primary schools. The government also supports the Music and Dance scheme by which means-tested pupils are financed at specialist schools such as the Menuhin and Purcell schools. The scheme is certainly welcome and the specialist schools play an important part in the education of professional musicians, including soloists. But it does little to address the real problem. Instrumental teaching, though essential for the exceptionally talented, is not for them alone.

Most of those who learn instruments at school will not aspire to become professional musicians, but will benefit from remaining enthusiastic amateurs. Chesterton said: 'If a thing's worth doing, it's worth doing badly' and I entirely agree with this as a defence of the amateur. But there is all the difference in the world between being totally incompetent and being a proper amateur, with a sound basis of knowledge and skill. This country has a great and long tradition of amateur musicians. It is from such a seedbed that our orchestral and band players spring and without an intelligent and passionate audience they could not flourish.

So let us get back to the local authority music services before it is too late. To do otherwise will be to impoverish the lives of great numbers of children and to widen the gap between the rich and the poor.

Baroness Warnock is a crossbench peer and a widely-published writer on education

[jbuck919]

I know what a peer is, but what is a crossbench peer? (Wait, let me guess: A peer who serves in the House of Commons?)

[Lark Ascending]

Crossbench peers are not aligned to any political party so are able to vote independntly of any party line.

[Corlyss_D]

The Peers represent parties?

[Agnes Selby]

In this instance, crossbench has nothing to do with politics, thank God!

It has to do, with the musician sitting on the bench across from you.

It allows you to glare at him when he playes wrong notes
and it also allows you to trip him when he is on his way to
sit on the crossbench. It allows you to poke out your tongue at him
and make him miserable in every possible way.

***I am proud to say that music education continues in a most
satisfactory way in Australia. Public and private schools all have
their bands and orchestras. Children as young as 6 years old
are taught the rudiments of music. It is a long standing tradition,
appreciated by parents and children alike. Music camps, some
of a week's duration and some lasting just a day or two, bring
joy to the children and a pride in their achievements.

It is not surprising, therefore, that a country with a population of less than the population of New York has produced so many excellent singers and musicians.

It is a pity about England, but just think! They produce excellent
football fans and the world takes notice!

Regards,
Agnes.

P.S. This is not meant to be a nasty posting at the expense
of Queen and Country. After all, Australia is still a colony of sorts.
---------------------------

[jbuck919]

The Peers represent parties?

That was my reaction.

[Ralph]

The Peers represent parties?

*****

Yes, there are Labour peers and Tory peers but, sadly, no longer are there hereditary peers in te Lords.