General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: did you have art and music in school? [View all]Ocelot II
(115,977 posts)and '60s. In (I think) 4th grade we all had to learn the Flute-o-phone, a rather dreadful plastic recorder not known for the delicacy of its overtones, but at least we were introduced to the basics of reading music. We did a lot of drawing and messy painting, too; I'm sure it was more often than once a week, based on the volume of the stuff I brought home. It all mattered a great deal - I wanted and got piano lessons, majored in music in college, and even though I was never good enough at it for a professional career I stuck with it and still do it. And after I retired I went back to painting, which is also helping to keep me sane. It's tragic that arts education is being so neglected now, but it seems like kids are just being trained to be useful drones because there's no money in the arts. Some countries support their artists, but we don't.