More thoughts on education

I picked up my clarinet (originally my Mom's) for the first time in years yesterday, and much to my surprise, I was able to remember the fingerings and play pretty well despite the fact that I'd rarely picked it up for the past 25 years or so. Credit memory and the education I got--both in the schools and also in private lessons.

Going further, I noticed something else; I was finally able to do some things I'd never managed back in high school. Specifically, I was able to sightread and transpose music. And so I wondered why I was able to do this now, but not then.

Probably maturity has something to do with it, but probably more importantly, I'd learned to learn music far more quickly singing in church (picking out tenor and bass parts) than I ever had in school. My high school had a good band program, especially the marching band, but what we'd done there was mostly to pick a few pieces of music and learn them backwards, forwards, and every which way. We got pretty good, but in doing so, certain key areas of musicality were never really addressed--like really reading music well and music theory.

Given that a marching band is essentially a militaristic--really Prussian--idea in the same way the entire government school system is, I've got to think that one huge reason homeschooling (as anti-Prussian as it gets) succeeds is that it teaches in the day to day--like singing hymns in church--as opposed to a big production, like preparation for tests.