Progressive Education has long had the mission to eradicate meritocracy. From the dogma of Inclusion (failing all children equally) to the sanctimony of All Must Have Prizes (patronizing all children equally) by way of demonizing foundational and requisite skill (lowering expectations and denying the potential flourishing of all children equally).
The main method for negating foundational knowledge and skill acquisition, along with their frameworks relating to standards by which fluency and mastery are established, is to assuredly call them racist, or supremacist, or another inflammatory cant, designed to terrify educators wedded to the vacuous platitude of ‘Great Job’ in the absence of discernible skill.
The justification for this insulting pretence to a child’s potential development has a number of causes which often appear clothed with good intent;
The raising of self esteem
The freedom of child-centred creativity
The gratification of pride in achievement
I take issue with all three in that unholy trinity which not only fail to equip students with the resources they need to become independent, but worse still, conditions them to identify with the idealized projections of ‘being’ a mathematician, an athlete, a writer, a musician, an artist, a scientist…etc. a pretence of ‘poesis’ without the fundamentals of ‘techne’.
Learning a craft is not initially about expressing yourself, or creativity. There are months and years of learning, repeating and refining foundational skills, overcoming plateaus and frustrations, on the way to gaining fluency and mastery. It is challenging because gratification is not instant, great effort and dedication are necessary to succeed. The desire to persist is usually driven by inspiration. Hearing and seeing a model of excellence and wanting to participate in it, not simply pretend to ‘be’ it.
There are optimal ways of producing sound as a chorister for example, in an ensemble which are not necessarily typical in your own default individual singing. Chorister training enables you to detach from yourself as ‘singer’ and use your voice more as a palette for embodying the sound world and varied stylistic adaptations to many different composers. You learn to blend, your voice is a tool and you’re not ‘expressing yourself’. You are subordinate to the group. A Marxist’s dream, you’d think they’d love that. Ah but there’s the problem of merit. To blend successfully requires much skill and practise.
Like the balance of a gymnast, it looks easy, but comes only through long practise within the body of knowledge, honing your awareness of differing styles and responsiveness to apply them effectively, depending on the requirements of the repertoire. At no stage here do you simply get to be ‘you’, doing ‘your own thing’. You don’t express yourself, you do something which is increasingly rare these days (without drugs!) and an amazing experience, you actually transcend yourself. Speak to any high skilled team sports player, ensemble musician, or chorister and they’ll tell you, there’s an immense buzz from performing with others this way when there is high competency and everyone is dedicated to maintaining excellence - not for ‘themselves’ - but in service to The Game.
Ensemble members are not passengers, they carry their own weight, but are reliant on each other operating at the top of their game, in order to faithfully convey a composer’s intention. There are many interdependent moving parts and the engine fails if competency is lacking in any of them. They are disciplined, but by no means robots!
Between the ages of 8-11 yrs, I was one of 6 girls in a class with 18 boys. We all sang daily. The boys were cathedral choristers and the girls (and boys) all played instruments, some very well and others less so (me massacring the violin). We were at a comprehensive school, not a private one. Some went on to gain professional music positions as directors and teachers years later and many worked in other fields. As kids we never knew the term ‘self esteem’ but we were aware of our own competency levels with no praise or shame. The most skilled players had the pressure of the solos. The voices with the nerves of steel could be relied upon to deliver the performance necessary for the success of the group. We were all genuinely happy for those with exceptional skill, loved hearing them, there was no resentment at not being them, or having their responsibilities. They, in turn, rooted for us when we made improvements.
The spiral was upwards for everyone and no one was held back. We had a high turnover of concerts, recordings and even a week off curriculum as the childrens ‘ chorus in a production of La Boheme. Seeing us snap into professionalism with learning stage setting, managing costumes etc. at that age, you’d never know what little assholes we really were. We were no angels for sure, but, what happens on the playground stays on the playground so….. if we hadn’t had those formative years in a culture and discipline of excellence, we would never have discovered what we were capable of and the transferable skills which we were able to apply in other areas across the years. Excellence in Sports served the same function for my husband.
Both Arts & Sports ‘For All’ was an inclusion trojan horse resulting in traditional high functioning Arts & Sports for no one as the rallying progressive cry came from the Academy to ‘deskill’ for accessibility. Many professional organizations jumped on this bandwagon, seeking to expand their Brand with workshop days, light on content, but rich in therapeutic recreation (cringe factor bravo) and cashed in on the ‘you can do it too!’ platitudes as the Inclusion income stream grew. Increasingly, the deskilled ‘recreation’ style activity permeated the extra curricular output in areas loosing their skilled specialist teachers (funding cuts allegedly, although with hindsight, it could have been the first phase of managed cultural regime change).
The withdrawal of quality, expert coaching/teaching which saw recreational activity replace skill development & excellence preceded the ideological justification of it pedagogically in the operational environment. At that time (1990s) I’m aware though that the formation of the philosophy and pedagogy was well underway in the Academy, even if Education Departments were still more focused on terms like ‘child centred’, ‘creativity’, ‘self esteem’ etc. and less overtly politicized then. Where skilled expertise remained in post, centres of excellence still ran with popularity and success.
During the first decade of this century I taught in 2 private schools with long standing traditions of musical excellence and like some of my colleagues still are, was insulated from the immense music education decline occurring elsewhere. From 2010 onwards there was a new assault. It wasn’t simply that funds were lacking, or expertise was thin on the ground. No, it was that schools needed to deskill their curriculum, so also their extra curricular activities. What had been cherished, appreciated and widely enjoyed was suddenly demonized and something to be discouraged in favour of unskilled karaoke style ‘fun’. Music Theatre had a free pass and World Music.
Instead of pop music ‘battle of the bands’ organized and performed just by students (very well!) there crept in a culture of music teachers choosing pop choir or show tunes and sort of vicariously playing at ‘cool’ (again, cringe factor bravo) and perhaps that was an early view of the activist style persona emerging? Over familiar, bit creepy….It certainly set the stage for the culturally relevant, SEL obsessed, saviour of the unskilled underdog, I’m here for you, tell me your problems, we’re all guidance counsellors now…..kind of culture.
So with its ideological origins in the Academy, its tactical withdrawal of funding from local education authorities, its soft bigotry of low expectations Inclusion philosophy drummed into teacher training and finally its political hot potato of supremacist rhetoric (plus the legions of under skilled musicians in teaching since the late 90s who secretly hated classical music anyway) remaining islands of excellence not yet expunged in the great cultural purge urgently need a preservation order. They need wider recognition and a long range eye to becoming potential hubs, centres of excellence for the training of others, the sharing of good practice and a broader vision for the renewal of quality music education dedicated to Excellence for All.