> To: gnome@hawaii.rr.com; linux-audio-user@lists.linuxaudio.org
> Date: Mon, 6 Aug 2012 11:34:19 +0200
> From: ralf.mardorf@alice-dsl.net
> Subject: Re: [LAU] Study Finds New Pop Music Does All Sound the Same.
>
> On Mon, 06 Aug 2012 08:32:41 +0200, david <gnome@hawaii.rr.com> wrote:
>
> > Of course, this is compounded by the way at least the American education
> > used to put a lot of effort into discouraging students from singing or
> > playing music ...
>
> *chuckle*
>
> As I explained in my previous mails, discouraging children to become
> creative already starts on German elementary schools.
> They teach them to use the left brain, instead of the right brain and they
> don't shy away from teaching dyslexics how to read by that ugly left brain
> thinking too. I wonder that they don't beat left-handers anymore. I
> suspect they don't understand what already seems to be known since the
> 80s, about how the brain seems to work. They have tons of affirmative
> action to teach the children arts, to teach dyslexics reading etc., but
> this seldom is done by artists, experts, it's done by social workers who
> miss to join their own psychotherapy.
>
> Regards,
> Ralf



I was quite surprised to read this, with Germany being the birth-place of the Steiner/Waldorf education system, which VERY much goes against the sentiments expressed in this thread.

Is it not correct that Waldorf Schools in Germany have full state funding/backing? I don't know why but I always believed this to be the case. I know there are some countries in Europe which do give funding for any "alternative" schooling. The one I attended in the UK has become the first to gain Academy Status and thus some kind of recognition by the State but I'm yet to know whether I believe this to be a good or bad thing.

I went to the first ever Waldorf School in my final year (15-16 years of age) and I was quite blown away by the facilities and what the students achieve there! Every child had built typically either a guitar or violin in word-working classes by I think it was age 14 (might have been 12.) The child I stayed with had built a boat we went sailing in! Quite amazing really!!

"

• In early childhood learning is largely experiential, imitative and sensory-based. The education emphasizes learning through practical activities.
• During the elementary school years (age 7–14), learning is artistic and imaginative, and is guided and stimulated by the creative authority of teachers. In these years, the approach emphasizes developing children's emotional life and artistic expression across a wide variety of performing and visual arts.
• During adolescence (age 14-19), the emphasis is on developing intellectual understanding and ethical ideals such as social responsibility to meet the developing capacity for abstract thought and conceptual judgement."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldorf_School


I will most definitely seriously consider sending my children to one when I have them and I would suggest anybody who is disenfranchised with the State education systems provided by their country of residence have a look into them and similar schools where they live.


Regards, Dale.