h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Teaswill- There was piano accompaniment for the sight reading test, not that it helped me much... It still makes me shiver how bad that must have sounded.


Mr. X - The education system in Texas may have been decimated more than others. Besides massive cuts to Texas school funding Texas is also "reforming" education by further cutting the budgets of poor and urban school districts that don't meet standardized test scores, which, of course, further hinders the schools until they threaten to take over or shut down the schools and merge them into neighboring districts, which, of course, strains those schools. Add to that some seriously heinous politicizing of the Texas Board of Education that often makes national news with fights over what will and won't be accepted in text books. Evolution, global warming, "over emphasis" on slavery being the root cause of the civil war, and the contribution of Hispanics in our history and culture are some of the subjects that some call "liberal indoctrination in our schools".

When I was a kid, Texas schools excelled. Now they rank near the bottom.

" I could absolutely not see a note on a page and "know" what note to sing. I knew only relative pitch, higher or lower and roughly how much. I would usually just follow along sotto voce until I got it" [baron Grim]

The only people who could see a note on a page and sing it are the ones with perfect pitch, a.k.a. absolute pitch. They are rare. The rest of us need to hear at least the first pitch so we can proceed form there. Sight reading is hard. So is auditioning in front of other people. You deserve some credit.

Oh, I'm sure they played a pitch pipe at the start.

We were at a neighboring school. The sight reading competition was held in an isolated class room. Three judges sat behind a partition, if I recall correctly. There was a piano accompanist. I believe I was given a certain amount of time to look over the piece then the accompanist or a proctor played the pitch before the music began.

Then, after the musical intro, DEEP HURTING ENSUED!

Okay, let's think about the situation. Your voice, which to a teenager is a major part of you, is changing along with other body parts. The "you" that was once treble is becoming fragile, while the deeper-pitched "you" that is in the process of becoming is not quite there yet. So on top of this uncertainty about who you are, you're also challenged to interpret a score you've never seen before, while people listen in.

It could have been worse. I remember a Junior High production of "Iolanthe" in which the title character embarrassed himself on a high note by cracking. He reflexively went down an octave, which hardly helped. I'm sure the audience was sympathetic, but it would still have been awful. Have you ever wondered why so many boys stop singing once their voices change?

Even when I was in my twenties, and in command of my adult voice, I was thrown for a loop by a sight-reading audition that made no musical sense. It was contrived solely to test for superior ability in strange tempi. No performing group in the world would expect an audience to appreciate such a score. They liked my voice, but rules were rules.

I ended up running out to our empty school bus and crying about it.


I've been perfectly tone deaf ever since.

In my pre-teens I could hear a short musical piece and accurately score it from memory.

For some reason, I lost the ability when I passed puberty and entered the adolescent age group.

I am reminded that my elementary school did not have a band. My high school did, though. Neither one had an orchestra.

A college level problem, martial arts classes were always scheduled in the same time slots as the dance classes.

I wanted to take both, but always had to make a choice between the two, opting for fencing, archery and judo along with extensive weight training, to the exclusion of dance classes.

So here I am, 'two right hands', as immortalized in 19th century wild west art cover art illustrating Billy the Kid adventures and Harry Harrison's "Bill the Galactic Hero, Planet of the Bottled Brains" cover art- ...and two left feet.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1?ie=UTF8&text=ROBERT+SHECKLEY%27+%27HARRY+HARRISON&search-alias=books&field-author=ROBERT+SHECKLEY%27+%27HARRY+HARRISON&sort=relevancerank

"The education system in Texas may have been decimated more than others. [...] When I was a kid, Texas schools excelled. Now they rank near the bottom."


Fair enough.

We did ballroom dancing. Our physics teacher was deputy head and a keen ballroom dancer and for all the time I was at the school the first and second years spent many of the games lessons in the winter term learning dances for the Christmas party which was an absolute highlight. As sixth formers we could then watch the "little ones" with their Valetas and their St Bernard's Waltzes, Gay Gordons, Virginia Reels and Dashing White Sergeants whilst we looked after the catering.

What I wish we had had more of was organic chemistry. I found it fascinating and, after all, it's what life's about.

The crunch came when we had to whittle our 9 'O' level subjects down to 3 'A' levels. I went the languages route and had to drop history and chemistry.

I took ballroom dancing in college, as part of a physical education requirement. I was never especially good at it.

There was so much missing from my secondary education (girls' grammar school 1954-61)that it would take a book to list. (I'm trying to whittle it down from the angry rant for the memoirs) My parents had left school at 14 and 15 and accepted that the teachers knew what they were talking about, but they didn't. Suffice it to say that I left school with no knowledge of human biology, having been wrongly channelled into languages rather than sciences. I did learn how to arrange flowers though.

The educaitonal systems in the U.S. and the U.K. seem to be very, very different. The former is something of a jumble, with everything but the kitchen sink, the result being not much focus. The latter has plenty of focus, but with a lot of useful stuff lost.

Ah, dancing!
I can remember doing country dancing in the school gym. Sport was not my forte - was always one of the last to be picked for teams. So glad that my school offered Keep Fit classes (exercise based dance)as an alternative to conventional PE/games for the older girls.
I still go to a Keep Fit class now!

I´ve always missed Music and Painting.
In the village next to mine, the kids were very fortunate. A teacher taught them some rudiments of both disciplines. She even organized a big theatral event with all the villagers.


If I were asked to design a syllabus I´d give a lot of weigth to Music and Arts in general ( dance, theatre...).
There are many reasons, but thinking of the benefits that can be seen quickly in a kid and in teenagers, the main one would be that Arts and Music could work as a prevention of drug addictions.
I will implement that with a very easy access to facilities where they could carry out their artistic skills. There are too many kids sat in a parks just drinking and smoking out of boredom and lack of healthy leisure offers.


How to grow vegetables, sewing, cooking and how to make soap will be also part of that syllabus.

"The educational systems in the U.S. and the U.K. seem to be very, very different. The former is something of a jumble, with everything but the kitchen sink, the result being not much focus."


That's certainly true through High School, but not College, where you choose your own focus. I think the point (if there is one) is to make sure people can make an informed decision about what focus THEY want.

Starting in middle school (Jr. High in my district,grades 6-8) students got to choose some elective courses. We didn't have majors as such, other schools did, but you could definitely choose many of your courses as you progressed.

I made a few wrong choices.

We all made some wrong choices, but we are what we are because of them.

Girls.

In secondary school at least. Mixed primary (4-11), boys only secondary (12-16), sixth form (16-18) which had only just gone mixed, and so was still mostly male.

Think I'm right in saying that boys do better in terms of educational attainment in mixed schools, girls in single sex schools. Which presumably is because teenage boys are awful, and the fewer of them are around in percentage terms, the better everyone does.

Think a lot of us ended up with some odd attitudes, which is what tends to happen if half of the population are transformed into some rare, mysterious and exotic species.

Yes, definitely girls! My experience of school was very similar. The secondary school was just about to go co-ed when I was in 6th year so we were told to go and meet the girls from the other half of the school (it was a single building divided in half). We sat in a classroom with the female 6th form and looked blankly at each other. Being forced to spend six years of school in an entirely male institution has, I'm sure, done me permanent psychological damage (at least, that's the excuse I give my wife).