MUSIC IN SCHOOLS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22864, 20 October 1937, Page 14

MUSIC IN SCHOOLS

Any school curriculum that has no music in it is without an element essential to true and full education. Even the rare folk unblessed with inborn musical appreciation and ability will hesitate to challenge Mr. Begg's plea, made after an extensive tour abroad, that in New Zealand schools a place larger and more honoured should be given to this subject. It has long been customary to give music some attention. Many adults are glad that in their own schooldays it was taught with real enthusiasm; they wish, maybe, that their children were today being given as much aid in this sort of culture. A great deal is being done, more perhaps than Mr. Begg's advocacy of better things suggests. Proof of this is on every hand, and full credit is due to all assisting in this development the Education Department, the Teachers' Training Colleges and the staffs in general. Yet a doubt is in order. In how many homes is the lilt of a song, or concerted singing, or eager playing on an instrument, so common and natural as to be an unremarked part of the social atmosphere there? Is the average performance of a community "sing" anything to write rhapsodies about? Too often the sense of a task or an "accomplishment" is in the striving after individual musical efficiency, and it is regarded as an "extra" instead of a joyous exercise of normal life. Young New Zealand has to be coaxed, it seems, or bribed, or badgered, into such expression; it is exertion rather than ecstasy. In many other countries it is not so. To make every school a centre of educative musical influence, in accordance with circumstances that have to be considered, is surely an aim worth serving with greater zest and thoroughness.