More news from the un-level playing field

Beer Moth

With this all the way.

But there is a problem. There is a vast and rapidly growing proportion of the children in our schools, who do not recognise and will not adopt the cultural heritage comprised by the activities you mention, because, they will tell you with a carefree bluntness, it is not theirs.

Anne Wotana Kaye 1

Susan, alas State schools have one aim. Bringing children down to a level where they will be pawns in the socialist agenda. Everybody at one level, competition not encouraged, and elitism a very bad word. I have only one serious complaint against the private and grammar schools. Harriet Harman, that vile loathsome unnatural female was educated at St Pauls. St Pauls was a fine (and I hope still is) establishment, and I think the training and education she received there enabled her to rise in her chosen career. Would that she had attended a sink-estate school, where as a white girl she would have received no reverse discrimination opportunities, and would have remained in obscurity to the advantage of many citizens, especially men.

Daniel Lionsden

Wonderful column, Susan. Talking of the Proms, one of the most inspirational concerts I've seen was the Venezuelan Youth Orchestra. It is sad that young people from a South American country have a greater knowledge and appreciation of western classical music than is now the case here.

SUSAN HILL

Daniel Lionsden. Thank you. And mention of the Venezuelan YO is an reply to the above point about some children in our schools finding the music alien.. Beethoven/Mozart/Mahler et al are not part of Venezuelan youth culture - it doesn`t matter.

JohnAnt

Susan - yes, I too despaired when I saw the NuLab inverted snobbery of bawling pop-adulation at the very earliest stage of their administration, like a flag of stupidity.
I *was* going to take objection to your idea that children could not take to high art, paintings, music, novels, "off their own bat". For instance, I started to read Dickens novels at ten, regularly walked a couple of miles to a Turner watercolour exhibition, got the bus to the central library to read 19th cent Hansards and devour histories and look at music scores, and spend hours in secondhand bookshops reading everything in sight without buying anything. But of course I could not have done this had I not had a) parents with a respect for learning b) a local Carnegie public library and c) a thorough grounding in primary school in the three Rs. And later, a grammar school (which was bullied into closing in the 1970s) that had a few good, kind teachers and an enlightened headmaster, and one brilliant music scholar. And that was and is enough.
It could be restored today, but won't be. The kids who could benefit are spoilt, as their parents want them to have 'advantages': the schools are full of culturally aggressive children, and any child seen walking two miles down a main road to an art gallery or browsing in a bookshop would be impounded by social services.

Bob

Quite right Susan. I remember not only the BBC music programmes but that Shakespeare's three Roman plays, Coriolanus, Julius Ceasar along with Anthony and Cleopatra were performed on BBC television (Only one station in those days apart from ITV) on a Friday night. These along with the Sunday classical drama adaptations were an integral part of my education. Not bad for a working class lad living on a council estate in South London.

Fearless Frank

Let's not despair - it's surely not too late to insist that the selectors ensure that the GB Olymic teams are selected on a fairer basis.
Let us insist that medal-seekers from challenged backgrounds are actively favoured over snooty toffs with their cut glass accents and high-and-mighty condescending attitudes, so that we can have a team that truly represents Britain in this 21st century.
In making their selections, the committee should also bear in mind that less able medal seekers will have experienced negatively privileged life journeys, and have an equally valid claim to membership of the team.
And what's all this stuff about music, art etc? - Don't you know that this is just irrelevant to the diverse experiences and cultures of the citizen of tomorrow's Britain?

Or in other words, it's too good for the likes of them!

Bunnykins

Sorry Susan, I disagree to an extent. I think it's primarily the responsibility of parents to inculcate a love of the arts in their children. You can go to the best equipped school in England and yet if there's not a culture of music or art in the student's home, there's little the school can do to change such an ingrained attitudes. Furthermore, music appreciation has always been seen as a soft option by students; a 'free' period and perfect opportunity to mess around. I was lucky enough to have come from a home where music as diverse as Bach, Elgar, Soft Machine and Frank Zappa was given air space. We had a piano, a violin and several guitars to hand. My father also had a lovely collection of Thames & Hudson books with beautiful illustrations. It was always noticeable when visiting the homes of friends where music and books were nowhere in evidence. They were just not interested in the arts. Given the massive demands on state schools to provide decent academic education, I'm not sure how fair it is to expect them to throw resources into subjects where the cultural diversity of the students' home life could easily mitigate against an interest in, say church music, in their homes. It's probably a bit like leading a horse to water..

Bunnykins

Non sequitur as this is: does anyone else find the writing 'pane' on these blogs too small to scan ones contributions properly? Judging by the fact that other people seem to manage quite easily, I fear I might be a member of a minority who finds themselves challenged thus. Perhaps I could apply for a grant on the grounds that I am obviously Attention Deficient?

Peter From Maidstone

Bunnykins, I agree with you to a point. I do think that in Primary school, as opposed to Secondary school, it is still possible to make a variety of musical styles part of the ordinary life of the school. In my local Infant school, for instance, classical music is played when the children are coming into the Hall for assembly.

When I was at Secondary (Grammar) school a trip was made to Glyndebourne, and I went to quite a few operas with a group of six formers led by the English master.

My son's Junior school puts on musical evenings twice a year and almost everyone participates with classical music as well as simpler children's songs. My son has grown to love music and though only 10 is playing electric guitar, recorder, drums and piano without much pushing from home, although we entirely support his interest. But much of it has come from his school which has an excellent music teacher who has embedded music in the school ethos.

Fabian the Fabulous

Bunnykins: easy solution to your symptoms of ADHD - write your writings in any text application such as word, word pad, text edit etc. When you like the result, copy and paste it all into the coffee house writing tablet.
But maybe the little pane is to discourage people from going on and on and on and on.

John77

It's partly economic - olympic sports are not a paying proposition (with a few exceptions for those at champion level) so anyone wanting to sacrifice several years of their life to achieve an Olympic dream needs financial backing from family or a sponsor (or both). Music isn't a way of supporting your family, unless you are Bach or a Pop star, so the vast majority of music students are those who do not need to earn money from it.
It is, in fact, surprising that so many olympic hopefuls attended state schools but that may be because comprehensive schools in posh neighbourhoods could, under New Labour, provide middle-class parents with decent education for their children on the cheap.
That does not detract from your point that the role of music in schools should be restored. Education is not just about passing exams - it should equip one for life which includes music, art and literature as well as maths, science and money-grubbing.

Mrs R

Have you any idea how many of the musicians in any of the major orchestras have been privately educated?

Fabian the Fabulous

@ Bunnykins
Fabian the Fabulous:
But maybe the little pane is to discourage people from going on and on and on and on.

Not that I was suggesting that you do!

Daniel Lionsden

Not sure I can agree with you Bunnykins. I come from a working class home where there were no musical instruments or books of any kind. I managed to educate myself about such things by using the library and listening to the BBC which was much more elitist back then (we're talking the 1970s) than now. While I did not receive much enlightenment from school, I can only believe that it would have been helpful and saved me many years of lonely searching and necessary autididacticism. I wonder how well a similar minded person would fare in our current culture, with any highbrow concepts much more marginalised than even a couple of generations back?

SUSAN HILL

Mrs R - no, I haven't. Have you ?

JohnBUK

Fearless Frank Couldn't agree more! While we're at it we should insist that all events in the Games are handicap driven eg in the 100 yards those from less advantaged backgrounds have a 30 yard start.
Just wondering out loud - Sir Steve Redgrave wasn't plummy was he? Damn!

Ian Walker

Sorry to disappoint, but I know of at least one state school with an excellent music graduate running an after-school choir, and filling her lesson plans with cross-curricular music. Of course, I'm slightly biased towards the charms of Mrs W, but she's not alone.

But feel free to slap plenty of tar on that broad brush you're holding.

Michael Sweeney

It is a large proportion, but isn't true that many olympic sports are quite specialised and are not entered by many countries? Fencing, hockey, rowing, archery, and equestrianism have hardly been the sports of the masses in this country for quite a while. I'd wager a lot of sailors are privately educated too. But I suspect most of our boxers and athletes are state educated. If we had a football team state pupils would dominate (but we don't). The sports the state schoolkids particpate in are also the most competitive internationally too - they're less expensive.

michael

Ban sports, ban music, in fact: ban all activity that ain't state sponsored.

Mr Balls can then be prevailed upon to dole out equality ... but only to the most deserving.

Richard Hallam

From one elitist who believes in excellence to another, may I ask where you got your information, Susan?

Only today, on Classic fm, there were announcements about Music for Youth’s festival series that leads to many tens of thousands of talented young musicians participating in wonderful music making throughout the country. Each year July sees the most wonderful celebration of youth music making in Birmingham at the National Festival of Music for Youth and the Schools Prom at the Royal Albert Hall every November shows that we remain world leaders in music education.

At present we are in the second full year of a programme designed to enable every primary school child who so wishes to learn a musical instrument and Sing Up, the national singing programme, is well on the way to making every school a singing school once again. By 2011 these opportunities should be available to all primary schools.

It is estimated that over 1 million young people are currently learning a musical instrument – many of them for free or at highly subsidised rates. I also know that there are currently around 20,000 ensembles provided by our wonderful music services.
This year has been nominated Tune In: Year of Music, to focus attention on the many excellent opportunities that are currently available. Including the three projects championed by Julian Lloyd Webber in Liverpool, Lambeth and Norwich all of which were inspired by El Sistema.

Is there more to be done? Yes, of course. Children do need good, exciting, enthusiastic teachers, they do need a general ethos of the best in everything but many are getting it!

Please can we celebrate the many successes and improvements and build on the best?

Richard Hallam MBE National Music Participation Director.

Nick

One problem with music in schools is that it is just as effortful a subject to learn (and teach) as any other, and the only lasting enjoyment comes from getting to grips with some theoretical fundamentals. But it is too often seen as a therapeutic alternative to the more "academic" subjects.
I also feel there is a connection between the disdain of classical music and increasingly anti-European attitudes - continental Europe is after all where the tradition has its source. To cut ourselves off from one is to cut ourselves off from the other.

Jangster

Are you really the same Susan Hill who attacked Bucks grammar schools not so long ago?

Just wondering like.

Angela Fogg

Yes yes yes.... but there is a way forward. I am a music teacher who has recently had to move from the private (sadly this school closed) to state sector so I feel I can really comment on this at greater length than anyone is probably happy to read! In many schools music is in a terrible state. Of course there are good ones, state and private, but not enough. There is the National Curriculum of course but most Primary teachers do not feel they can teach it. They never learned the musical skills themselves at school unless they were fortunate enough to have individual music lessons. Teacher training provides only a few hours instruction on how to teach music for new teachers. This is like training a new maths teacher how to teach maths when they cannot count to 10 thenselves. There is a big hole in music education, if the same were true of any other subject there would be an outcry. One way forward is Kodaly musicianship. Learning through singing carefully selected material that can be used to develope musicainship and every child's (and I really stress every child's) understanding of music. We should all be able to look at a score and know how it should sound. Everyone can learn to read rhythm and pitch and should have opportunities to part of creative musical experiences. As a modern Kodaly teacher for over twenty years I constantly see children develop in their musical understanding and creativity and acceptance of all kinds of music apart from pop, regardless of cultural heritage, as they learn about music from the inside out not the outside in. There is hope but there is also alot of work and effort needed from the top to repair and build music education in this country. Without fully trained teachers in music throughout nursery to GCSE levels for every school many of our children will continue to be robbed of a decent music education.