• Pup Biru
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        6 days ago

        there’s a reason that the acronym is STEAM now. the arts are just as important as science, tech, engineering and maths (both for society and culture at large, but more specifically it’s been shown that music helps people with learning other academic concepts). the right sees the only value in society as that which produces direct economic value. it’s a right wing meme because it paints the arts as a waste of time, and economic management as important

        • @[email protected]
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          26 days ago

          A few things to unpack here. Firstly, the most right wing people I know are PhD candidates in philosophy. They are huge proponents of the arts. They would argue that the anti-arts sentiment in the Republican Party today comes from their embrace of the working class and is not a traditional conservative value.

          Secondly, the reason many of us disregard the STEAM acronym is because it’s meaningless. Arts encompasses all of the subjects outside of STEM so STEAM just means “all subjects” which is not something you can focus on by definition.

          • Pup Biru
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            46 days ago

            the most right wing people I know are PhD candidates in philosophy. They are huge proponents of the arts. They would argue that the anti-arts sentiment in the Republican Party today comes from their embrace of the working class and is not a traditional conservative value.

            i think that this comes down to terminology and communication… generally in the world today, “right wing” encompasses social and economic conservatism. when i say right wing (as an aussie), im talking about both the republican party, and the australian Liberal/national coalition (bearing in mind that the capital L liberal in their name means economic liberalism - aka libertarian)

            i agree with a lot of right wing values, BUT im much more left, because whilst i think that economy and currency are important to produce left wing (for everyone) values, it fails to account for negative externalities (which includes both social, and economic economic externalities… and honestly social negative externalities lead to economic externalities)

            “right wing” today in general communication, imo, means something different to what right wing meant during the french revolution

            Arts encompasses all of the subjects outside of STEM so STEAM just means “all subjects” which is not something you can focus on by definition.

            it doesn’t though… business (including both accounting and management), hospitality, trades, law, marketing, psych, teaching… i hesitate to include nursing but not medicine, but there’s a grey area there… and i didn’t even start to list trades and things in australia that aren’t “university” but covered by “TAFE”

            STEAM is almost… secondary value: by default (except tech and eng perhaps?) they don’t produce value, but are important precursors that feed INTO the other things. you have to value the precursors, else the other “value makers” don’t have a foundation

            • DeceptichumOP
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              25 days ago

              Labor are also right wing, they literally introduced neoliberalism to our shores.

        • @[email protected]
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          76 days ago

          Also, financial literacy applies to capitalist systems, by glorifying it, they are glorifying capitalism

          • DeceptichumOP
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            35 days ago

            Recognizing and surviving within the system you are in a skill everyone needs, it is not glorifying anything.

            • @[email protected]
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              15 days ago

              Home economics was an excellent class that exposed students to many creative and practical applications that were often ultimately built around budgeting.

              Too bad they don’t really offer that anymore

    • @[email protected]
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      6 days ago

      Nah apparently recorders are a Nazi plot or something so this is based & wokepilled.

  • kadu
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    325 days ago

    The goal of schools is not to prepare you for capitalism. Luckily, they’re one of the few institutions that are still concerned with human values beyond money.

    You could argue it would be valuable, from a practical sense, to additionally offer classes on personal finance, sure, but it’s abhorrent to use music lessons as a mocking point or suggest that somehow the school should teach finance instead of all other subject matters.

    • ...m...
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      106 days ago

      …music teaches you to be a good person; financial literacy teaches you to be a tool…

    • DeceptichumOP
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      46 days ago

      I’ve had co-workers refuse a pay rise because they thought they would lose money due to higher taxes.

      Music as a lesson has never once been beneficial outside of a classroom.

      One skill is useful for life, the other is useful for the 3 people who intend to go on to study music.

      • @[email protected]
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        6 days ago

        For you, maybe.

        Playing music is still my number one coping skill for stress, and still my number one activity that raises my self esteem.

        I have done nothing with my music knowledge except enjoy it for myself. I played this recorder here, then clarinet, then bass clarinet, and finally today I only play bass guitar.

        Still love it, and am grateful to have discovered I enjoyed playing when I was ten years old from school band. My band teacher was awesome. She encouraged me at a time no other adult did.

        Edit, in middle school we learned the theme song from Jurassic Park. It was the first time I got shivers when we’d play it together on stage. What an incredible feeling. And now, some 25 years later, that theme song still rotates in my brain music playlist. I still remember that feeling on stage the night we performed it on stage in concert. Absolutely incredible.

        • DeceptichumOP
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          26 days ago

          School should not be for finding hobbies. It’s bad enough children are denied agency, but to waste time on hobbies that aren’t even relevant to them?

          • @[email protected]
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            96 days ago

            I literally just said it was relevant to me. Im not gonna argue with someone who sees music as a waste of time. Band was an elective. Accounting was also an elective (in high school). I took both.

          • @[email protected]
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            15 days ago

            How would you know what career/life/goal you want to pursue if you don’t try it first at school? Is the purpose of school to teach you how to be an automaton working a dead end job? Cause that’s what it sounds like you want

            Also describing music purely as a “hobby” is asinine

      • @[email protected]
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        66 days ago

        You must be some kind of troll. Music literally transforms the structure of your brain, strengthens neural connections, and makes you smarter in every way. If you knew anything about either music or mathematics, you would know the two are fundamentally linked. There are many problems with our society, but too much access to arts and culture definitely is not one of them. Do they even teach music in schools anymore? States have been cutting the curricula to the bone, and the arts have suffered the most.

  • Miles O'Brien
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    676 days ago

    I don’t know about the rest of you, but I don’t know of any 1st grade classes teaching financial literacy, nor high school classes focusing on how to play a recorder.

    I did have a few weeks that focus on domestic finances in 8th grade. That almost nobody paid attention to. So there’s at least one school that did both 20 years ago…

  • @[email protected]
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    1056 days ago

    If you’re wondering, Why recorders? — there are three reasons:

    • They’re portable.
    • Recorders in decent enough quality can be cheaply produced, so even low-income children get to play one. Compare that with a guitar where 30$ gets you a piece of wood that detunes as soon as you lay eyes on it. Not great for practicing.
    • Recorders have an easily memorizable fingering scheme that allows you to quickly pick up the C Major scale. Compare this with a guitar where you need to remember for each string individually which frets have the notes of the scale.
    • Sibbo
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      246 days ago

      You don’t need to remember for each string individually which frets have the notes of the scale on a guitar. If you know where the base note is, there is exactly one pattern for minor and one for major.

      Guitars are very hard to play for kids because the strings are so thin that they hurt after very few minutes.

      • @[email protected]
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        296 days ago

        Guitars are very hard to play for kids because the strings are so thin that they hurt after very few minutes.

        That’s a better reason.

        • @[email protected]
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          56 days ago

          Also, longer fingers help with play and children don’t have full sized hands yet.

          That said, you could probably get away with ukeleles instead of recorders, if you were really insistent on string instruments.

    • @[email protected]
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      46 days ago

      It was a gateway instrument into learning the clarinet then eventually the alto sax, then baritone sax for me, so I really appreciate it.

      That being said, financial literacy is super important. Wasn’t home-ec supposed to teach us that??

    • @[email protected]
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      36 days ago

      You make these good points, but all I’m hearing is that Big Recorder is paying out public schools to keep making children buy and play them. Hot Cross Buns? More like Huge Con Bunkos! Thank you for your attention to this matter!!!

  • @[email protected]
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    256 days ago

    This is stupid.

    In school they had us practice recorder in ghe 4th grade, ages 9/10. I took accounting in highschool, ages 16/17.

    We did both. Not only did we do both, these two lessons were taught at very different stages of education.

    • @[email protected]
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      36 days ago

      Came here to say this, we also learned recorder in 4th grade. If you tried teaching 4th graders about trading securities derivatives you’d have a riot on your hands in less than 5 minutes lol.

      • DeceptichumOP
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        25 days ago

        trading securities derivatives

        The fuck would you ever teach them that for?

        They’re 10 years old not idiots, they can learn through age appropriate skills such as budgeting and decision making - which can be made into a fun game as can almost anything you want to teach.

      • @[email protected]
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        36 days ago

        Exactly. I also had the thought, if you breakdown music composition, it’s basically math. Music is math.

        • @[email protected]
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          25 days ago

          And numerous studies showing the growth in other subjects when music is (actually) taught in elementary. It is crossing the streams, so to speak.

          It is also what makes us human, not robots.

          • @[email protected]
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            5 days ago

            I once saw a study where they did a brain scan on someone while playing music. The results were fascinating. I’m bout to double check it’s been so long, but I’m near certain it lights up all parts of the brain. Something amazing happens when we play music. It absolutely is a core human experience.

            Edit: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1d-PlEAQMBY

  • @[email protected]
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    236 days ago

    What’s wrong with teaching music in school? I never got on with it, but some of my classmates genuinely loved it. And now that we’re adults they aren’t professional musicians by any stretch of the imagination, but they still enjoy playing just for the fun of it or as a hobby.

    Few people I know do financial literacy as a hobby, no judgement though if that’s what helps you unwind after a day at the office.

    • @[email protected]
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      5 days ago

      I’m pretty sure this is a song lyric from “the poor”, by Jesse Welles.

      “I was memorizing capitols

      I was in the spelling bee

      I must’ve missed the part

      Where they taught the art of private equity

      I was selling chocolate bars

      I had a disorder

      I was cuttin’ up a frog

      Got lost in the fog

      Learnin’ how to play a recorder

      I don’t think it’s supposed to be a slam against musical instruments.

  • @[email protected]
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    76 days ago

    why the fuck are you talking about recorders, it’s a flute…? (searched for it just right now and found out that’s the name in English and it doesn’t make sense at all, but OK)

    Anyway, they’re cheap, light, accessible, straightforward: no complex skill required to blow or get a correct tone. Flute got me into reading music. Terrible teachers unable to comprehend that a teenager needs something fun to play instead of boring music study books got me out of it.

    • Owl
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      26 days ago

      that’s the name in English and it doesn’t make sense at all

      Faut arrêter avec le “c’est pas comme en français du coup c’est mal”

      • @[email protected]
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        16 days ago

        je n’ai pas dit que c’était mal… mais que ça n’a pas de sens (étymologiquement parlant). C’est un mot étonnant pour une flute, on s’imagine un enregistreur.

        • @[email protected]
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          15 days ago

          J’ai toujours pensé la même chose. J’ai changé d’école française à anglaise en cinquième année pis tout à coup les flutes était des “recorders”? Même en anglais je les appellais des flutes jusqu’à là… Étrange

  • Mark with a Z
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    66 days ago

    Pleasant memories. The asshole next to blew as hard as he could point blank to my ear. Fuck I hate those things.

  • Rose
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    35 days ago

    So you’ve tried art, and discovered it’s not for you. That’s still better than not having tried art at all in first place. You at least know where you stand in regards to that question now. …Or at least I hope so.

    • Echo Dot
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      14 days ago

      Not of course that there is such a thing as professional recorder players.

  • @[email protected]
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    5 days ago

    I never learned an instrument (schools don’t teach that here unless its of your own volition) and its not that I’m financially illiterate, I just don’t trust anyone with my money. So, I guess knowing how to play a flute or some bullshit like that would be net positive.

    Guess I’ll keep on whistling while my money slowly becomes worthless.