Don Satz replies to Jocelyn Wang:

>>Moreover, the more alarming reality to all of this is that classical
>>music itself is in trouble due to the fact that we have had, at least
>>in the USA, nearly two generations raised without any significant arts
>>education in schools.
>
>I think that classical music will survive the lack of music education in
>public schools.  It isn't as if the music education was excellent in the
>past; it existed, I attended the classes, and I quickly dropped it from
>the brain when class was over.  The subject was an "aside" when I went to
>school; now it's gone.  I'm not sure that there's much difference between
>the two.

On the other hand, I learned to read music and play an instrument in MY
public school, in a working-class neighborhood, over 40 years ago.  We had
a visionary principal.  We all got cheap plastic recorders and played in
parts.  We also had choirs.  No one told us to "appreciate" music.  We DID
it.  That has been very valuable for me, and I realize I was luckier than
most.  It seems to me you connect to music more strongly if you actually
get to make it.

Steve Schwartz