The Nice People Thread, No.16: A Universe of Niceness.

Cakeguts

Pyxis wrote: »

I've seen what it can do for people with Alzheimer's and dementia. It's incredible.

Yes I know about that too. There was also some interesting research done on the affects of making music with retired people. One of the outcomes of that was that retired people felt that they still had control of their lives if they played music with others.

It is a self esteem thing. Much better for everyone than carrying a knife? So why is it not done in schools?

Loanranger

Again I beg to differ.
Look at how many people on these boards need money management help and probably have no idea how to do basic calculations in their head such as how to calculate ten per cent of a number by simply moving the decimal point. I would put the scarce teaching resource into maths rather than music. Money management personal finances etc are essential life skills and need a good foundation of numerial skill.
Music is nice to have taught in schools but not an essential.

michaels

Loanranger wrote: »

Again I beg to differ.
Look at how many people on these boards need money management help and probably have no idea how to do basic calculations in their head such as how to calculate ten per cent of a number by simply moving the decimal point. I would put the scarce teaching resource into maths rather than music. Money management personal finances etc are essential life skills and need a good foundation of numerical skill.
Music is nice to have taught in schools but not an essential.

</NP> I sometime think lack of basic numeracy skills is one reason many people vote for Corbyn style Labour (note Blair/Brown/Milliband at least pretended that thier plans made economic sense rather than just being straight bribes with imaginary money)<NP>

There could also be something about wish fulfilment, Ms May became much less electable when she published a manifesto suggesting that all the unfunded 'entitlements' to ever increasing pensions and no increases in taxation might not actually be realistic

LydiaJ

Loanranger wrote: »

Again I beg to differ.
Look at how many people on these boards need money management help and probably have no idea how to do basic calculations in their head such as how to calculate ten per cent of a number by simply moving the decimal point. I would put the scarce teaching resource into maths rather than music. Money management personal finances etc are essential life skills and need a good foundation of numerial skill.
Music is nice to have taught in schools but not an essential.

Children are in school for five hours a day. They do not need to spend all of it on core subjects. There is room for both maths and music. But class music is quite limited in what it can achieve with 30 children of very widely varying musical ability and experience all in the same room - hence PN's experience getting...

PasturesNew wrote: »

stuck with the s0ddin' triangle.

OTOH, actually learning an instrument properly is much more labour intensive - usually done one on one or one on two. School budgets do not stretch to teaching anybody anything one on one, not music, not maths, not English, not anything else (unless the parents pay extra, natch).

Personally, I have my doubts about the success of Martin's "financial education in schools" thing, although I do agree it's right to try. My experience of teenagers in school (and I'm a secondary school teacher) is that they are bored to tears by that sort of thing. Personal finance comes under the heading of "boring grown up stuff" that is parents' responsibility to deal with.

You can try to teach it to them, but the sort that hate maths and are convinced that they "can't do maths" won't pay attention and won't learn much. The sort that love maths will be bored because they'd rather be learning something more theoretical - like calculus. Those are the ones who would have been able to get to grips with mortgage rates and so on anyway, once they were grown up enough to get a mortgage. There will probably be some in the middle who will benefit, but it won't have quite the effect Martin hopes. Most will not be remotely interested in *learning about* personal finance until they're old enough to *have* their own personal finance. I think he has been extrapolating from the level of interest and engagement he can inspire as an outside speaker, as opposed to what can be achieved by kids' usual teachers delivering something as part of the curriculum.

Maybe I am too cynical. I hope I am wrong. But I do know that the section on "paying for electricity" in GCSE physics - price per kWh and all that - does not IME make 15/16-year-olds think "Wow! I must listen carefully to this bit because in several years' time I'll have to pay my own bills." Dull as ditchwater compared with, say, charging students up with a Van de Graaff so their hair stands on end, or even compared with wiring a plug, and they generally complain that they can't see the point in that because everything comes with moulded plugs these days.

silvercar

I remember in primary school, music lessons consisted of listening to a programme over the radio, where we would all be instructed to sing along with the words and music in an accompanying book.

[Deleted User]

Sounds like my school, although I believe that we had some cymbals as well.

Cakeguts

PasturesNew wrote: »

I've never even touched a violin ....I've seen them in the cases when those that had them were dropped off in cars. But I've never actually touched one myself even casually. I couldn't even point to a viola in a long line of pictures... ditto all those instruments that "look like bigger violins".

Schools didn't have such instruments, so you only played one if you had your own. Ditto with most instruments.

The school only had one glockenspiel (finally remembered the name) ... one xylophone and some tambourines and triangles. All other instruments were played by their owners.

I don't really remember doing music much in any case, I think it was a rare class.

Here is a bit of useless information. If you measure along the back of a violin down the middle to the place where the back is the same as a bit of the edge and missing out the little round bit that is joined to bottom of the violin neck you will get the answer of around 14 inches or less. If you measure a viola you will get an answer of around 15 inches or more. There are violas that are around 14 inches but they are quite rare unless they belong to a small child. There are also smaller violas in child sizes but adults tend to have normal sized violins and violas where as you say the viola is bigger. A cello has an end pin or spike which sticks in the floor and is quite long. You wouldn't want to try to put even a small cello under your chin because of the spike. A double bass player has to put their hands up level with their heads to play notes near the top.

Time for another viola joke.

Q What is the difference between a viola and an onion?

A No one cries when you chop up a viola.

Doozergirl

GDB2222 wrote: »

I emailed Eurostar CS to say DW had left her phone on the train. That was on Thursday. Today, they emailed back with the email address for their lost property department. Sigh.

I tried to phone then but then had to email their lost property department. They ignored me.

LydiaJ

silvercar wrote: »

I remember in primary school, music lessons consisted of listening to a programme over the radio, where we would all be instructed to sing along with the words and music in an accompanying book.

I remember that too! And playing recorders along with the radio programme as well.

SingleSue

Pyxis wrote: »

Yes, but music has been shown to improve concentration in core subjects!

(Jumps up and down on soapbox)



(Soapbox breaks under the strain!)

For Josh it was the key which unlocked his Aspergers and allowed him to learn. Before he discovered playing music he was completely out of control, having Aspergic rages all over the place and his brain was never calm enough to take information in.

I'm standing on the soapbox with you....but not jumping, it would most def break if I did that! :rotfl: