Why Teach Music in Primary Schools

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Teaching Music In Primary Schools 1 After just over five years of teaching music in the primary school system, I felt strong-willed to enlighten the general public and all educators of the importance of music in schools. As a music educator at the primary level, I observed and witness firsthand the importance of music in the holistic development of the child. Why children should be debarred from being a part of music programs and activities like Junior Panorama and Sanfest just to name a few. Is the Secondary entry assessment exam in Trinidad and Tobago so important that we neglect the child other hidden gifts and talents? I strongly believe that areas such as Language Arts, Mathematics and Science plays an integral part in getting the child ready for the world of higher education and work. However I also strongly believe that just as much emphasis should also be placed on music as well, mainly because of the many opportunities this field possess in these modern times. These are some of the thoughts that compelled me to convince each educator, from the teacher in the early childhood education centres to the Minister of education himself that music is indeed an integral part in the development o the child. According to 20th-century composer John Cage, he thought that any sound can be music, saying, for example, "There is no noise, only sound. According to musicologist Jean-Jacques Nattiez, "the border between music and noise is always culturally defined which implies that, even within a single society, this border does not always pass through the same place. In short, there is rarely a consensus. By all accounts there is no single and intercultural universal concept defining what music might be, except that it is 'sound through time'. I see music as a “colourful arrangement of sound,”(Al Bunting 2011) The word colours give us a feeling of different

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