Filed under: Artistic Expression, Children and Parenting, Economic Reform, educational reform, Music, Social Issues, Social Reform, Theology | Tags: cerebral cortex, classical music, culture of life, Didache, economic crisis, economic reform, economic slavery, educational reform, fundamental right, intelligence, learning under compulsion, Main Street School of Music, MIT, Mozart Effect, music education, personhood, Pre-K, Shinichi Suzuki, Suzuki method, The Talk, The View, violin
Check out this short, to the point, blogpost by a man named Chuck: Play a Musical Instrument. Chuck’s blogpost cites an MIT study to the effect that playing a musical instrument can increase the size of the cerebral cortex by 30%. My son’s fabulous violin teacher Colby Howe (at the Main Street School of Music) mentioned this study to me yesterday . . . except he says those results were found in adults who began learning a musical instrument no later than age 11. This further supports my belief that it is a fundamental human right of personhood to be taught how to make music at a young age, and all discussions about educational reform simply must take this fundamental right into account.
We have public Pre-K for 3 year olds, and Dr. Shinichi Suzuki has designed a simple and effective method for group violin instruction beginning at age 3. Would it really be that difficult to make Suzuki violin instruction a compulsory component of Pre-K 3 programs in the U.S.?
This past May I saw a news story on The View about Chinese high school and college students using IV drips to ‘get an edge on the academic competition’ (since IVs enable them to study for 12 hours straight without having to take breaks). NO, NO, NO CHILD! ‘Learning under compulsion takes no hold upon the mind’ (Thomas Jefferson), most individuals need regular breaks from study in order to remain sane and ensure retention of the material being studied . . . not to mention that holding one’s body hostage in the name of ‘learning’ is not progress towards the full-flowering of human potential but yet another form of societal punishment.
I don’t agree with much of what I hear on talk shows like The View and The Talk (on the rare occasions I watch), and what appalled me greatly was the insinuation that ‘maybe American students should consider trying this IV approach.’ OMG, NO, NO, NO AGAIN! The first century christian writer Didache said there are two ways through life: the way of life and the way of death. The Way of Life is expanding the intellect of children by teaching 3 year olds to play the violin and playing classical music during reading and study periods to reap the intellectual benefits of The Mozart Effect. The Way of Death is hooking young bodies up to IVs in order to facilitate ‘learning under compulsion.’
Please, America, let’s not let our current economic challenges terrify us into pursuing ‘the way of death.’ We do not have to compromise our right to a joyful life in order to become economically whole, and no one should be a slave to their jobs or to their so-called ‘education.’
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Diane Stranz on American Life 