[Dixielandjazz] The Lack of Music Programs in the Schools.

[Steve Barbone]

Following is excerpted from the 2007 Commencement address at Stanford
University, given by Dana Gioia, the Chairman of the NEA. (National
Endowment for the Arts). Interesting viewpoint which many of us have
rejected over the past several decades. Others among us have become
pro-active and maybe they will make a difference.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone

"I remember a time when every public high school in this country had a
musical program . . . usually a jazz band too. . . These p[rograms are no
longer widely available to the new generation. This once visionary and
democratic system has been almost entirely dismantled by well-meaning but
myopic school boards, county and state officials, with the Federal
Government largely indifferent to the issue. 50 million students have paid
the price. . ."

"Why have we experienced this colossal cultural and political decline? There
are several reasons, but I must risk offending many friends and colleagues
by saying that surely artists and intellectuals are partly to blame. Most .
. . have lost their ability to converse with the rest of society. We have
become wonderfully expert in talking to one another, but have become almost
invisible and inaudible in the general culture. . . If we could reopen the
conversation . . ., the results would not only transform society but also
artistic and intellectual life."