r
The Battalion
Viewpoint
October 5,19811
Slouch
By Jim Earle
-
i' >
‘It will handle any mathematical problem in seconds; but
confidentially, I would recommend that you get one that
works on batteries! ,,
Sour notes in schools’
music education classes
By PATRICIA McCORMACK
United Press International
►
ah
Music is supposed to:
— Sooth the savage beast, be both a
universal language and a language made in
heaven.
But in this era of budget retrenchments
in the nation’s schools and even in
Washington where the National Endow
ments for the Arts and Humanities are fac
ing reductions, a central question about
music and the schools these days is this:
“What is the state of the teaching of
music?”
K - The question was among those tackled
by musicians and educators during a four-
i day conference on the future of the per
forming arts in America, a meeting spon
sored by Yale University School of Music
and the American Assembly Inc. of New
York.
The answer, coming from many among
the 53 conferees, leaders in education and
^ performing arts, was a collection of sour
* notes. Murry Sidlin, a conferee and music
f'" director-conductor of orchestras on the
v east and west coast, said every year for
: quite a while now the number of music
teachers in the nation’s public schools has
ri— gone down by 3,500.
Teachers who die or retire are not re
placed. Teachers are let go as schools trim
in response to budget cuts.
“At best the teaching of music is a hapha
zard affair,” said Sidlin, whose orchestras
are the New Haven Symphony in New
Haven, Conn., and the Long Beach, Calif,
Symphony. He also teaches at the Aspen
Music Festival in Colorado and lectures
nationwide on music education and prog
rams for the gifted.
Sidlin said, as is the case with the per
forming arts these days, schools also are
taking their cue from the federal govern
ment.
“When music support as a part of the
National Endowment for the Arts is in a
state of increasing danger, corporations,
private donors, foundations feel this and
the reflection is also made to various school
systems,” he said.
The $158 million sought by the National
Endowment for the Arts is subject to cuts of
from 25 to 50 percent, depending on how
Congress votes on the Reagan administra
tion recommendation of cuts.
“Music and the other arts sit on death
row waiting to have their sentences com
muted,” Sidlin said.
“Because the commutation doesn’t come
along we lose from the public school sys
tems 3,500 positions every year— this was
happening even before Proposition 13.”
Proposition 13 was the California law
that held property taxes for school at a level
much below the high ones that prevailed for
years. As a result schools had to operate on
much less money. The idea, “proposition
13 fever,” spread to many other states.
The big soft pedal on music programs is
even much more intense these days, as Sid
lin sees it.
Why?
“Because there is no signal from
Washington that the arts are integral to
people’s lives,” he said.
During the administrations of presi
dents Carter, Ford, Nixon, Johnson and
Kennedy we had at least a signal that the
arts are a major force as vital to our senses as
blood is to our veins. Under the present
administration the blood has turned to
water.
“Since schools are a reflection of the total
values of society, the music teaching pic
ture in the public school system is becom
ing more and more disasterous.
‘We have to turn the whole situation
around and realize a civilization, a culture,
a government and its people will be rep
resented by its art and we must develop in
people, especially children, an understand
ing of the meaning of uniqueness and indi
viduality through discovery of their own
perceptions and imagination, fantasy and
wonder.
“This is only achieveable when children
have a direct opportunity to be touched by
art.
“And that introduction must take place
in the schools — the very place where it is
being eliminated.”
Sidlin predicted that without music and
the other arts “we are destined to become
lesser human beings as a society.”
in its report at the end of the conference
in New Haven, Conn., the assembled lead
ers from the performing arts world made
these points about arts education:
— “The arts (theater, dance, music)
should be taught in the classroom as a fun
damental part of basic education beginning
at the elementary level. They are another
language with which to interpret ourselves
to ourselves and to other cultures.”
— “Schools should strive to achieve
literacy of perception rather than mere arts
apreciation. To understand the commit
ment involved as well as the creative
process, the young must experience per
formance by actual participation and by
observing professional artists.”
More suggestions to shorten
the presidential campaigns
By CLAY F. RICHARDS
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Among the proposals
in the latest study to overhaul the way
America elects its presidents is one that
consolidates the primaries into a four-
month period and allows only one primary
day each month.
States would pick which of the four prim
ary days they wanted. Then after each
round, there would be a month for candi
dates to campaign for the next series, and
for the voters to contemplate the results of
the previous round and take a hard look at
the candidates as they prepared to vote in
the next round.
season ends in California in June.
In addition, the panel recommends few
er primaries than the 37 held in 1980.
Not only would the primary season be
shorter, less tiring and less boring, but ear
ly small states like Iowa and New Hamp
shire — their primarie is boosted by at
times outrageous media hype — would no
longer play the role of kingmaker.
The proposal by the Duke University
forum — a bipartisan panel of 10 Democrats
and 10 Republicans including former pres
idential candidates, campaign managers
and national party chairmen — is an alter
native to the present system where the
Iowa caucuses begin in January and the
The Duke panel argues that nominations
would not be wrapped up early as Ronald
Reagan did in 1980, or by candidates like
Jimmy Carter, who was able to spend a full
year in the small states, overwhelming
Democratic opponents despite the fact he
was virtually unknown and untested.
But there is no guarantee that under the
Duke plan the best candidates would al
ways win.
If, say New York, Texas and Oregon all
held their primaries on the Tuesday in the
first month and one candidate won all
three, he would be the clear front runner
for carrying three such diverse stat«|
It woidd make competition diffici
candidate whose strategy had
bypass the first round to concentrat
later series.
The Duke panel is one of several^
ing the elections process. Both the Rep
can and Democratic parties have app
commissions to make similar studies!
M ore than anything else, whatthelj
study shows is that while there aref
problems with tin* current system,I
no perfect alternative, or at least]
been found yet.
And the constantly changing role
things like television, jet air travelardi
puters play in campaigns will force!
changes in the system.
In the past good systems havepn
bad candidates and bad systems M
duc( >1 >od candidates \nd MtlM.':j
making any radical changes, thepoV
and parties will go on tinkering here!
tinkering there.
r 00UM9£ VTWTH C'O y* -wvt mm >1" mivc -rwrxr
The cry of the wild tofu on Capitol Hil
By DICK WEST
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Part of the budgetary
flap over the school lunch program involved
the issuance and withdrawal of federal reg
ulations that, for nutritional purposes, clas
sified tofu as a meat dish.
Some of the arugments on both sides
were, I suspect, rooted in ignorance.
There must be millions of Americans
who have never tasted tofu and thus are
unable to discuss its lunch program role
intelligently, much less know what type of
wine to serve with it. I, I confess, am among
them.
When the controversy first arose, I re
solved to remedy my deficiency. So I asked
my wife if we might have tofu for dinner one
evening.
“It’s OK with me,” she said. “If you can
catch one. I’ll try to cook it. ”
I called up a gamekeeper, a rustic chap
named Mellors, and asked if there were an
open season on tofu.
“It’s always open season on tofu,” he
replied.
“What’s the bag limit?”
“As many as you can carry. Just make it
light on yourself. ”
I asked Mellors whether we might be
able to snare a tofu or two by setting out a
few traps.
Mellors said he was entertaining a lady in
his cottage that afternoon and wouldn’t
have time to fool around with trapping.
However, he promised to give the matter
his fullest attention at the earliest possible
moment.
Meanwhile, I busied myself in research.
Actually, I discovered, there aren’t a
great many tofu recipes in the cookbooks
one is likely to have in one’s kitchen. I
found one recipe for braised tofu and
another for smoked tofu with lemon sauce,
and that was about it.
After talking it over, my wife and I de
cided to wing it with roasted tofu
smothered with lamb chops.
When I heard from Mellors a few days
later, he told me he had spent several hours
stalking the elusive tofu to no avail. The
expensive hound he had borrowed to assist
in the tracking lost the scent just oveij
first ridge and was of no help at all,
Mellors concluded that the chantti
capturing a tofu in its natural state wasj
tually nil. He suggested I go to a meatli
er and buy a frozen one. j^ tor ]
“Be sure to get one that already hasIw) to
skinned,” he advised. “They’re
clean. ”
I have yet to find a provender thatsiop 11
tofu, skinned or unskinned. 0Wln i
“They’re had to find this time off j^j n
one locker plant manager told me
However, he said he understoodi ify
could order tofu under glass at some(
more exotic restaurants.
Until I get an opportunity to sample! ;son ^
in some form, my policy on the schoollm s , stu
issue is this: Don’t knock it if you have »grat
tried it.
Warped
By Scott McCultar
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