The Golden Mean
One of the major places where people cutting school budgets go horribly wrong is trying to save money by cutting “unnecessary” music and arts programs in favor of the “basics”. What they miss and why they fail students is that the structure of music and the composition of art enhances rather that detracts from the “basics”.
How it all comes together: Danny Kaye singing Inchworm & Sarah McLachlin finding just another ordinary miracle in the vast mathematical plan of the universe.
It is a matter of how children learn. Some by rote or touch, others by sound, others by sight. There simply isn’t a one size fits all. When you eliminate two of the methods: Sight and Sound, you cripple a large percentage before they have even truly begun. Most kids learn the alphabet by singing it. Dr Seuss books have a natural rhythm to them. Nursery rhymes can be sung. These are some of our earliest exposures to knowledge, and they usually come at us through music and art.
