Here we go again.

I know that our new/old governor here in California doesn't have plans to touch education in the next round of cuts which will come if he doesn't get the support for taxes that he needs, but I fear that the 2011-12 budget will necessitate further cuts to education anyway. There doesn't seem to be any bottom to the cuts. They can slash and slash and never reach the bone. And what happens if they DO reach the bone? Will they just cut off the limb altogether?

I have tried to keep my postings positive and focus on the joys of being a music teacher. But with the coming budget fights inevitably calling for even deeper cuts to our already chopped-up-and-stitched-together Music programs, I feel that this might be the time to do a little preemptive rallying, if not downright ranting.

I have lately been reading two excellent books by Daniel J. Levitin: This is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession, and The World in Six Songs. Levitin is a music researcher and a musician, and both books deal with how and why we make and listen to music. Chock full of data and references to all kinds of music, the take-away from all of my reading is this: Music, more than any human endeavor, in its ubiquitous presence in our lives, is WHAT MAKES US HUMAN. One might extrapolate this point to all the other Arts, but it is Music that is my focus, and so I can only talk about that. We have music in every place, time and age of our lives. We have music for all reasons, for all people, everywhere forever. There has never been a time when humans did not make music. Some of the most ancient artifacts unearthed with the bones of the earliest human-like ancestors appear to be musical instruments. Singing is thought to be prelinguistic communication, an extension of the baby's crying, meaning that humans may have sung to each other before they spoke. We made music together and alone before we wrote or read, before we developed math or science. Music connects us to ourselves and each other in a way that nothing else can.

Yes, music develops the brain. Yes, it enhances learning of language, math, all the rest. Yes, as I have said before, music can act for social change. But all this is beside the point. There is no place or time that music doesn't exist. It accompanies everything from a wait in the dentist's office to an appendectomy. It attends our weddings, funerals, inaugurations, sporting events, birthday parties. No movie would make sense without its music score. No parade would draw a crowd without a marching band. No baseball game would feel complete without 50,000 fans singing the Star Spangled Banner and Take Me Out to the Ballgame. Try going a whole day without hearing a note of music. Unless you are camping in the woods (Does birdsong count? Or the singing of coyotes in the dark?) you will likely find it impossible.

Our children will all need to be able to read and do math at a level to manage their lives. If we are doing our jobs right, they should master THAT by the time they are in 4th or 5th grade. Any more is just for getting into college. Like they say, after 3rd grade a child should be reading to learn, not learning to read. Yes, they need to know about the Missions and Ancient Civilizations and some Algebra and Geometry would be useful. But EVERY child will experience music throughout his life. Every child should have the tools in hand to PARTICIPATE in the music he or she experiences. If we remove music instruction from their core curriculum we deny children their very humanity.