Educ for Life-long Learning LO4691

Ray Evans Harrell (mcore@soho.ios.com)
Mon, 8 Jan 1996 04:11:54 -0500

Replying to LO4652 -- was: 3 Wishes for LO List

_Roy_J._Winkler,_AAS,_BSM wrote:
> How do we marry secondary and post-secondary education with the
>needs of the workplace in such a way that we condition individuals to be
>life-long learners by the time they enter the workforce? This, more than
>many other strategies, should produce people who are adept and accepting
>of participation in a learning organization.

Roy, I was going to bed its 3:45 A.M. I'm not one of those people who can
put it down in twenty minutes easily but this one is easy.

One generation ago the serious arts were cut out of the public schools in
much of America. Beverly Sills keeps a file on what happens in public
schools where the perceptual skills are taught in 30% or more of the core
curriculum. Poor schools that adopt an artistic curriculum show dramatic
rises in concentration, community cooperation, perceptual skills in
abstract forms and resistance to drugs. They also show marked rises in
the SAT scores in the traditional areas. You might say that it is hard
for someone who is not sophisticated visually, aurally or in the
manipulation of symbols to understand the new information concepts that
are being manifested as we leave the industrial and move into the
information era. Even Plato made the Arts the basis for his theories on
education. That is the root of his Cave metaphor. Literacy and expertise
in the Fine Arts develops the kind of thought that you are seeking in the
private sector.

Since the late sixties there has been a marked decrease in the ability of
children to concentrate in long periods of time. Performances on
Television have shortened their skit times to two minutes, down from six
in the late sixties. If they go beyond two minutes before a change they
lose their audience. Commercially popular performing arts initially set
out to sell the kids on their music believing the Fine Arts (long hair
music) was the enemy to be defeated. When they won that battle they
created a less discriminate individual. You are now paying for that. It
is no mistake that the captains of Korean, Chinese and Japanese industries
send their kids to the music schools of America. They make up about one
third of the total enrollment of our schools. They know that our systems
are embedded in our traditional Fine Arts, NOT in our commercial enter-
tainment. There are 120,000 music students in American colleges and
conservatories. Most of them will not find work in the profession. They
go one to become our finest professionals in every category, especially
medicine and computers.

Roy, instead of looking to the new, first look at the basis for all that
has come into the present and teach that well. You have to develop
discrimination. Discriminate workers will not be cattle but they will
work well in a serious 21st century visionary company. Everything else is
smoke and mirrors.

Goodnight 4:20 A.M. excuse the mistakes,
yours,

--
Ray Evans Harrell
Artistic Director
The Magic Circle Opera Repertory Ensemble, Inc. 
200 West 70th Street, Suite 6-c
New York City, New York 10023-4324
mcore@soho.ios.com