Music: a first principle in education

Performing Arts & Entertainment in Canada, Fall, 1997 by Fred Lautenschlaeger

At any time, a society needs to understand the essential requirements of childhood education, and to ensure that these are respected. With this is mind, we need to be sure that our society's "seed money" is spread on the most promising ground. This eclectic summary is designed to encourage the reader's reaction.

1. It has been demonstrated that learning to play a musical instrument at an early age promotes a wider growth and development of the brain, and develops the structure for complicated tasks later in life.

2. Schools must teach music. It is as important as reading and arithmetic.

3. Early education should make more use of the most inexpensive musical instrument-the voice.

4. Highly developed rather than light music should be taught. "You cannot shape a discriminating appetite with fast food."

5. Almost every child should be able to sing or to play an instrument.

6. It has been suggested that education involving serious music programmes produces more thoughtful students.

7. The training of the ear increases speech fluency, rhythm training prompts skill in mathematics, and the learning of melodies sharpens the memory.

8. The leitmotif should be "More singing than playing and even more playing than record listening and television." (Zoltan Kodaly)

As our government assesses the redistribution of funding, we need to make sure it is advised on the rudiments of education. We also need to ensure that early childhood instruction in the ability to use technology not take priority over knowledge and wisdom. One may well ask whether it is advisable, particularly in periods of financial constraints, to introduce technology into the lower grades of our schools if it is at the expense of teaching the fundamentals of music and literature. We need to devise ways of maintaining the first principles of education, by strengthening the public education in music.