My sister was a elementary school teacher and got fired (after 20 years of teaching) for trying to teach more of the softer skills. The superintendent wanted to increase test scores and maintain costs to look good and didn’t give a rats ass about the education. The superintendent was stupid and arrogant enough to actually believe what she was doing was right. And the parents went along with it because they were too busy and too brainwashed to think outside the box and have faith that nourishing the souls of the students would have a positive impact on their lives. And that’s par for the course.

When I was young I had to take it upon myself to read on my own, learn music, play around with computers and ignore the constant harassment by my father about getting all A+’a so I could get into Harvard which I didn’t of courses. This left permanent emotional scars on me, but was worth it.

I wonder how it might be possible for parents to get clued into this. I find it interesting that something really simple like teaching kids how to play the piano is screwed up so badly consistently. Most kids want to learn how to play songs they enjoy (eg Pop songs, Beatles) and improv or sing — ie be creative, yet parents are always sending their kids to learn classical music which they hate. Why does this keep happening? Because parents don’t know any better and there are a ton of classical music piano teachers out there who need to make money. Incredible disconnect-if you can’t get something this simple right, how can you improve education in general?

I suppose those parents who already get it, will send their kids to a Montessori school or something like that…if they can afford it.