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A musician wakes from a terrible nightmare. In his dream he finds
himself in a society where music education has been made mandatory.
“We are helping our students become more competitive in an
increasingly sound-filled world.” Educators, school systems, and the
state are put in charge of this vital project. Studies are
commissioned, committees are formed, and decisions are made— all
without the advice or participation of a single working musician or
composer.
Since musicians are known to set down their ideas in the form of
sheet music, these curious black dots and lines must constitute the
“language of music.” It is imperative that students become fluent in
this language if they are to attain any degree of musical competence;
indeed, it would be ludicrous to expect a child to sing a song or
play an instrument without having a thorough grounding in music
notation and theory. Playing and listening to music, let alone
composing an original piece, are considered very advanced topics and
are generally put off until college, and more often graduate school.
Sadly, our present system of mathematics education is precisely this
kind of nightmare. In fact, if I had to design a mechanism for the
express purpose of destroying a child’s natural curiosity and love of
pattern-making, I couldn’t possibly do as good a job as is currently
being done— I simply wouldn’t have the imagination to come up with
the kind of senseless, soulcrushing ideas that constitute
contemporary mathematics education.