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

[Scott Anthony]

I know we're not supposed to talk politics here, but it seems to me that the 
wholesale drive to eliminate federal support for and effectively defund arts 
programs in public schools in the 1980s by the "you-know-who" 
administration, followed by the no-child-left-standing legislation has left 
us with this sorry state of affairs. When I was in public school in the 50s 
and 60s my town had the absolute best vocal and instrumental music program 
in the state of New Jersey. Now it has practically nothing.

Scott Anthony


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve Barbone" <barbonestreet at earthlink.net>
To: <santh at pacbell.net>
Cc: "Dixieland Jazz Mailing List" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Monday, October 01, 2007 1:17 PM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] The Lack of Music Programs in the Schools.


> 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."
>
>
>
>
>
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