It sounds like a new release game or electro dance album moving into next year. If only it were, but I don't think any artist would be making it big anytime soon with a name like "Naplan".
The views that I'll be
expressing in this article are purely from my perspective, and not
representative of any other organisation apart from my own tuition business.
As the teaching wraps up
towards the end of 2013, I continue to work hard with my students as we
complete what is essentially out first term leading up to the events of
July/August next year. We work towards this goal since it is the time where a
lot of examinations, assessments, and post-competition performances take place.
Everything is moving along
as it should, until I am notified about some of the primary schools and their
plans heading into next year. Grafton is the first town where some schools
start to announce proposed changes to external programs. The change that has
the biggest impact is that external programs are not allowed to commence until
the middle of the day (the proposed time was from 12:30pm). The mornings have
to be left available throughout the week for students to complete their maths
and literacy sessions, or even to the point of allocating
more time to these subject areas.
I discussed this matter with
a couple of other music tutors, and the only thing that I was hoping for was
that other schools in the North Coast region would not be taking this lead. Unfortunately,
another school announced they would be changing their subject approach and this
may well have the same effect on other schools now. It has started to bring
forth the sad reality that external programs of development and value are going
to either trail behind or be discarded for the internal text-book style slog of
literacy and numeracy teachings. I'm all for students receiving their education
as deemed to be of greatest importance by the government and world-rankings,
but not at the detriment of other programs that have proven consistently to be
of benefit or assistance as a part of their education and/or behaviour management.
To be absolutely clear, this
is not purely about music programs in schools. This is about any program that
inspires creative, artistic activity. This includes anything that may be
related to the use of cognitive, fine motor, or gross motor skills with an
aspiration to learn and develop.
Using music as our primary
example, studies and research have clearly given the results that if children
take up a musical instrument and study it with intensity that other areas of
their school work and behaviour improve. When I was in high school, my music
teacher showed me an article where it was declared that mathematical skills
would improve by 66% if you studied on a musical instrument. The proof is in
the pudding as the improvements to learning, behaviour, and application are
observed over time by the student, their parents, and their music teacher. And
one would hope the classroom teacher too, as they wonder where the miraculous
improvement has come from while (hopefully) looking past any previous
behaviours, misdemeanors, or failures displayed by the student.
Over the years I have had
many families give their thanks and remark at not only how well their child is
playing (and what a joy it is to hear them play an instrument), but also how
much their child enjoys school and the improving results in their classroom
subjects. I’ve had teachers warn me about new students being problematic and
having issues. The next term I would ask what the problem was.
The program limitations are
of great concern. What I find annoying is the fact that a successful formula/program
that these students are taking part in is going to be modified or possibly
removed if a schedule is imposed and restricted enough. This will end up
disadvantaging students and may cause them to regress, effectively lowering the
standard instead of finding methods and teaching strategies to help reach the
bar or push well above it. Why is it that these program proposals want to cut
into an already effective teaching strategy that the families and students WANT
to take part in?
The current hypothesis is
that the brain is at its freshest in the morning. It will be if they’ve had a
decent night of sleep and a satisfactory breakfast, but otherwise something I
wholeheartedly agree with. So if the brain is at its freshest in the morning at
the start of school, then it should be good to go ahead and saturate with
textbook-style teaching. And we all know that students, in primary schools in
particular, are going to be incredibly engaged with hooking into their maths
equations and wanting to write the perfect bit of prose for a national testing
scheme. Their brain may have a different opinion on that matter as it goes into
an “osmosis mode”, instead of being in a more pro-active mode where greater
brain activity is inspired and generated by creative tasks or activities.
During the last week of
school, the Orara High School band participated in their school’s Presentation
Day. This is a school program I have worked with for the last three years,
something I didn’t realise until it was mentioned after the performance (time
flies when you’re having fun, and doing stuff). Throughout the awards
presentation, there were three different performances. There were two musical
ones, and a dance routine presented by a duo of girls. Each performance
received rapturous applause and support as people marveled at the skills
displayed. The combination of horizontal and vertical dimensions of the dance
duo as one displayed a routine on the floor while the other danced with
vertical silks as they tumbled, rolled and twirled to the profound music (and
it was if you observed the routine and heard the lyrics at the same time). The
gripping performance of a contemporary celtic-style piece by a quintet
including drums, bass guitar, acoustic guitar, banjo, violin and vocals left
many students intrigued as they listened in silence. Lastly was the school band
as they gave an outstanding performance of Pirates of the Caribbean, surprising
both the music teacher and I as we performed along with them. The students from
all of the performances had positive, personal highlights as they performed in
front of local, state and federal political dignitaries.
So while I laud praise on
these students that gave incredible artistic performances as part of the end of
year festivities for Orara High School, what does this have to do with the
current proposals for primary programs going into next year? The majority of
these students that took part in these Presentation Day performances received
awards of achievement in different subject areas. The awards of particular note,
for students from years nine through to eleven, were the Overall Achievement
awards. These awards are given to the top three ranking students for each year.
Of the ten students (there was a tie for third in Year 9), eight I could
readily name as being involved in a creative and/or artistic area of some kind
whether it involved sound, visuals, or movement. For Year 9, it was a clean
sweep of musicians with a different instrument for each recipient. I mentioned
this to a couple of teachers and parents present, and the response was ever so
clear.
“If only everyone realised and
understood the benefits.”
