How To Teach Art And Drama In Schools

By Simon Oliver

Let's face it, arts and drama are considered extra-curricular activities when we think of what we expect to learn in school. In fact, arts and drama usually fall in line with extra-curricular activities, which are deemed by most as not as important as learning science, English or math. The indifference to arts and drama may have been brought about by the super high technology lifestyles that we lead. Today, many people are exposed to a culture that is so tarnished with modernity that they have forgotten just what real art and culture is like.

This is why it is important to teach arts and drama at school, to save future generations from being illiterate of what truly comprises culture. Drama often is associated with English, however it is not given any real focus.

How about dance? Dance is a part of physical education and is taught (sad to say) by teachers whose sole training was a short course that really interferes with their true inclination which is playing hockey, netball, football, or rugby. Music is also taught but only up to age 14. Let us not forget that art is a vital part of technology and should never be construed as a thing of the past. 

Music & Intelligence: Will Listening to Music Make You Smarter?

By Duane Shinn
Will listening to music make you smarter? Will learning to play a musical instrument make your brain grow larger than normal?

Questions like these ones have been popping up all over the place in the past few years, and not just in scientific journals either.

In recent times the media has been fascinated by the research surrounding brain development and music, eagerly reporting on the latest studies to the delight of the music-loving parents of young children.

But all this information - and some misinformation too - has led to generalized confusion about the role of music and music training in the development of the human brain. The bottom line is this: if you're confused by all you read about music study and brain development, you're certainly not alone.

In part, this is due to the manner in which the phrase "the Mozart Effect" has been popularized by the media and bandied about to describe any situation in which music has a positive effect on cognition or behavior.

In fact the Mozart Effect refers specifically to a 1993 research finding by Frances Rauscher, Gordon Shaw and Katherine Ky and published in the prestigious journal Nature. The scientists found that 36 college students who listened to 10 minutes of a Mozart sonata performed higher on a subsequent spatial-temporal task than after they listened to relaxation instructions or silence.

Prufrock, The Wasteland, T. S. Eliot and Me

by Bruce Deitrick Price...For gifted or literary students, a lively poem called THEORYLAND offers a fun way for teachers to touch on lots of topics. T. S. Eliot, for one. Our links to the past. The use of rhyme. Obeying rules, and breaking rules. Riffing, sampling, and alluding (Eliot did a lot of all three!). The power of so-called Theory on some campuses. The difficulty of writing popular poetry in our time...

Okay, I have to start with a confession. I love this poem, my poem--THEORYLAND, it's called--and I promote it wherever I can. But having said that, I want to point out that many roads come together in this poem. It's a satire of academic excess, i.e., sophistries run amuck in English Departments. It riffs fondly on T. S. Eliot--the main character is sort of a Prufrock, and the mood and title are from The Wasteland. So you've got a very smart, intellectual poem. But, look out, it's fun. So much modern poetry is boring; we almost expect it. I have written about this problem in an essay called "The Plight of Poetry" (easy to find in Google). Academics give us pretentious Theory and boring verse. My proudest claim is that people read my poem for pleasure!
A woman from France sent me an email saying that my poetry had taken her back to reading Eliot. Another woman sent me a note calling me "an overeducated rapper." Thank you! (But is this true?) A very talented sculptor in Italy MISREAD the poem as an allegory about the life of the artist--but this is completely fascinating as it tells me that academics and educators don't get so crazy in Italy. They do get crazy here. In fact, it was my study of Structuralism and other fancy-dancy isms that made me so indignant that THEORYLAND sort of erupted.

Kids Educational Craft Ideas - Alternatives to Using a Paint Brush

by Helen Thompson

Painting opens up a world of colour and communication for children and is a wonderful way for them to create. There are many simple and exciting alternatives to using a paint brush.

String painting is easy and is a great way for children to pattern paint. You just wrap some string around a small wooden block (this could be a building block that your children play with). A square or rectangle shape is better, but make sure that it is big enough for the child to hold easily. To aid in your child's learning, it is best to have a variety of different sizes handy. Prepare some paint and pour it into some old polystyrene trays or any tray that you can afford to use for lots of painting activities. Dip the block into the paint and press on the paper and you're done!

Marble painting is another way for children to have fun and also learn hand eye coordination whilst creating different patterns. Prepare some paint and put it in a container that has deep sides, such as an old baking tray or a shallow cardboard box. The top of a shoe box is an excellent example providing that it is still strong and intact. Put some paper in the bottom of the tray with a small amount of paint (you can use two or three different colours at a time). Drop a marble in the tray and let the children move the marble backwards and forwards, sideways etc. to create their own work of art.

But Practice Is Soooo Boring!!!!

By: Suzie Hammond

Are your students loathe to practice as much as they should? OK, you can stop laughing and pick yourself up off the floor now. I know it wasn�t the brightest question.

But I asked it to make a point, of course. Haven�t you been guilty of that misbehavior? I personally am a lifetime repeat offender. As adults we all know intellectually that if you don�t practice something, you don�t get better. We tell our students and ourselves this until the bile rises in our throat threatening an embarrassing episode. So why do we keep putting it off?

In the darkest recesses of your psyche a nagging whisper gives you the answer. It�s not fun. And in this day and age nobody wants to do anything that�s not FUN!

Crescendo Now, Pay Later

In the hierarchy of musical priorities, dynamics have often appeared to me to be relegated to fairly low niche and left there to languish, their immense potential for beauty and expressiveness being overlooked and ignored. Even in recordings of professional orchestras it is not at all unusual to here a crescendo or diminuendo begin and end without any unified idea of where it is heading. Concerts or recordings where the music making is otherwise of a very high calibe all to often approach the dynamics with far less care and intelligence than other musical matters.

Every musician knows what dynamics are and will tell you that when they see an mf on the music, by golly they play mezzo forte! And when they see a crescendo to a  fff, watch out, buddy! 

Crescendos (or crescendi, for our purist friends) seem to bring out a primal Darwinian, survival of the fittest impulse in many of us. If you can do it, e.g. low brass, most percussion, etc., then do it. If you can’t, e.g. low register flutes, middle register clarinets, etc., then get out of the way. It is quite understandable. After all, you flutes and clarinets get all the great melodies and technical calisthenics while we timpanists and trombonists are stuck back here counting rests. So, when we are finally allowed to speak, our voices will be heard! Then to our delight and to the delight of our audiences, excitement happens! Everybody wins, right? Absolutely. The only casualty is the music.

The World Does NOT Revolve Around You

“Listen, you spoiled little cretins, the world does not revolve around you,” I patiently explained.

 “You’re kidding right?” hooted my students derisively.

“Pick up your instruments, start together on the downbeat and count carefully.”

 How many music teachers have had the first part of that conversation?  Almost none, at least not out loud.  The second installment is an every day plea for many.

Our youth-obsessed culture seems to make a liar out of me, but lest you think your work is in vain, let me present you with a few ideas.

One of the things adults commonly complain about in their later years looking back on school, aside from a lousy prom, was that they felt ‘alone’ and like an ‘outsider’.   The band and orchestra students that I have canvassed don’t often feel that way.  Isn’t that interesting?   I’m lobbying to have my son do a graduate research project on this issue.  I’d love to see the results, wouldn’t you?

Common sense, that harbinger of things ‘everybody knows’ insists that if you learn to be part of a group that needs you in order to get something done, you will feel valuable and worthwhile. Anecdotal evidence supports this concept.