The Speech of Angels Ignored

"There is pleasure in the pathless woods, there is rapture in the lonely shore, there is society where none intrudes, by the deep sea, and music in its roar; I love not Man the less, but Nature more." George Byron


This is a travesty of epic proportions and should be on the front page of every daily rag around the country. A Current Affair should be stalking Arts & Education Ministers from Perth to Sydney. My mate Alan Jones should be concerning himself with something important like this. In fact, we should be on the street protesting.

"A major national review of Australian school music in 2005 estimated that about 10% of Australian schools have no music program of any kind," Stephen Crittenden has reported in his latest broadcast for Radio National's Background Briefing.

Crittenden interviews Richard Letts, the executive director of the Music Council of Australia, who explains that seven years ago they did a national study and "found that, on average, people who are training to be primary classroom teachers got 23 hours of instruction in music and music pedagogy. With that 23 hours, they have to be ready to teach six years of music."

That's right. A child in this country can be taught music for six formative years at primary school by people who have learnt the art in just 23 hours.

No wonder Richard Tognetti calls music education in Australia 'neanderthal'.

But wait. It gets better.

35% of primary schools have absolutely no music in New South Wales. The data across the nation, according to Crittenden's report, is not much better.

Crittenden compares what's happening in Australia with what is happening in a country just across the Pacific - Venezuela.

"Established in 1975, El Sistema [Venezuela's national system of youth and children's orchestras and choirs] was originally conceived as a social program for young people in Venezuela's crime- and drug-ridden slums. It's an intensive after-school program that takes children from 2 years old to 20, with much of the tuition provided by young people who are graduates of the program.

"Because of El Sistema, Venezuela is now a country awash with music — in fact it now has more than 200 youth orchestras," he reports.

But its not just quantity Venezuela is producing - it's quality as well. Gustavo Dudamel, a 28-year-old Venezuelan has just been appointed chief conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

It's worth taking an hour out of your day to hear this report which is quite an astonishing snapshot into the current state of affairs in music education in this first world nation known as 'Australia'.

I'd be very interested to hear how you think this compares to other arts education programmes - particularly theatre and the visual arts.