The question was asked in the Question & Answer Site, Jamaican Traditions, if Music and Art are fostered in Jamaican schools.

The Swami answered in this limited manner:
Well schools in Jamaica do generally offer music and art classes. However, this are not always seen as essential subjects and are only included in the curriculum for the full development and well roundedness of each student.
Classes like Food and nutrition/home economics/cooking, woodwork, music and art are compulsory for the first three years in most high schools .
If the child wanted or wished to pursue these subjects seriously only some high schools and most traditional high schools such as Immaculate (which has an awesome orchestra) and Ardenne have excellent programs.

Schools In Jamaica:
www.jamaican-traditions.com/schools-in-jamaica.html


THE BRAIN: Is Music for Wooing, Mothering, Bonding--or Is It Just "Auditory Cheesecake"?
Older than civilization, music fosters communication, wellness, and bonding across all cultures—but where it comes from is disputed.

"When Charles Darwin listened to music, he asked himself, what is it for? Philosophers had pondered the mathematical beauty of music for thousands of years, but Darwin wondered about its connection to biology.

Humans make music just as beavers build dams and peacocks show off their tail feathers, he reasoned, so music must have evolved. What drove its evolution was hard for him to divine, however. “As neither the enjoyment nor the capacity of producing musical notes are faculties of the least direct use to man in reference to his ordinary habits of life, they must be ranked among the most mysterious with which he is endowed,” Darwin wrote in 1871."

Darwin himself believed that music evolved as a primordial love song. In other species, males make rhythmic grunts, screeches, and chirps to attract mates. “Musical tones and rhythm were used by the half-human progenitors of man, during the season of courtship, when animals of all kinds are excited by the strongest passions,” he proposed in The Descent of Man. And today, 139 years later, some scientists still sign on to this interpretation.

Dean Falk & Ellen Dissanayake...accept the idea that a predisposition to music is hardwired, but they think Darwin misunderstood its primary function.
They suggest that music evolved not only to serve love but also to soothe its aftermath.
Mothers coo to their babies in a melodious singsong sometimes called motherese, a behavior that is unique to humans. Motherese is much the same in all cultures; its pitches are higher and its tempo slower than adult speech. What’s more, motherese is important for forming bonds between mother and child. Falk and Dissanayake argue that the fundamentals of music first arose because it helped form these bonds; once the elements of music were laid down, adults were able to enjoy it as well.

A third faction holds that music evolved not from any one-on-one experience but as a way to bring groups together.
Robin Dunbar, a psychologist at the University of Oxford, is now running experiments to test the idea that music evolved to strengthen the emotional bonds in small groups of hominids...

A contrary view was offered by Steven Pinker, Harvard psychologist, in his 1997 best-selling book, How the Mind Works.
“As far as biological cause and effect are concerned, music is useless,” he declared. Music is a by-product of how we communicate with each other—nothing more than “auditory cheesecake”...

Following up on that research, others such as the neuroscientist, Aniruddh Patel, have collected evidence that supports the auditory cheesecake hypothesis, but only up to a point. When Patel and his colleagues examined the parts of the brain that handle different aspects of music—tone, rhythm, and so on—they found that there is no special lobe uniquely dedicated to those particular jobs.
It looks as if music is riding the coattails of other parts of the brain that evolved for other functions.

Article in Discovery Magazine (Dec 2010):
http://discovermagazine.com/2010/dec/21-music-wooing-mothering-bonding-enjoyment

Would anyone in the Forum like to share their experiences with Music & Art in their Jamaican education/upbringing and how it influenced your future lives in creativity, "mathematica", rationality, empathy, "thinking outside of the box"...??

Too much emphasis is being placed on such thgs as this. How many students are actually going to make anything of themselves by studying music or arts? this is crazy!!!

I think that the Jamaican schools need to spend more time on teaching students the basics! Lots of Jamaicans even though they have been through school still cannot spell correctly! I have a world map on my wall. I am actually doing a survey. I have asked 13 random Jamaicans to point to Jamaica on the map. Only 4 even knew where it was! And when I showed it to them they were surprised at how small it is in the big picture! this is SAD! Too much emphasis is being placed on such glorified things such as being the next Usain Bolt or Tarrus Riley. You are really misguiding your citizens and setting them up for failure.

'Don't get it' what you have just described is not unique to Jamaica.Those in the so called 'developed' world are not as knowledgeable and enlightened as you think they are.You would be surprised to know some of the questions being asked, sometimes by people that are deemed 'educated'and as for knowing the basics about their own country if you did a survey you would probably be shocked by the results.On a study abroad programme my daughter was asked the following question by a university under-graduate:do English speak English?We have a generation of impressionable children who are being brought up on a diet of brainless TV programmes that target them and successfully turn them into zombies,young people/kids whose only ambition is to become a 'celebrity' by being infamous and they wear the label with pride and will do anything to maintain it. Learning the basics is far from their minds.I know people with good grades in maths who really do not know their times tables etc...... I am forever hearing about universities complaing about the calibre of students entering university because many have little basic understanding of their subject matter.Societies around the world are changing not always for the better and so are people's values and priorities, sadly that's the reality.

why me asks:How many students are actually going to make anything of themselves by studying music or arts?

Does this mean that you are advocating a multi-tiered school system, where schools such as Immaculate, Ardenne, Campion College, St Jago, Hillel Academy (Sean Paul's prep school) etc offer the benefits of an Arts & Music education, as part of a rigorous curriculum, but other schools become corrals for remedial learning?

The benefits of an education, which includes the Arts, especially for those, whose learning abilities are so stimulated are well documented.

Just one Program that is reaching out and interacting with the developing world is Class Act Children's Creative Art Link.

As stated on their web page, there is a "Compelling Need":

• Arts education, plainly and simply, improves learning, and leads to greater academic achievement. It enhances a student's creativity and increases creative thinking and problem-solving skills.
• Arts education has been proven to increase communication skills vitally needed in today's complex society with its emphasis on technology and mass communication.
• Arts Education provides children with a foundation, and ultimately an elevated skill-set that is required to compete in a hastily developing global economy. In a recent New York Times article, researchers found that arts classes had broad indirect benefits:
---"…Students who study the arts seriously are taught to see better, to envision, to persist, to be playful and learn from mistakes…"

A variety of other studies have also demonstrated that participation in arts programs is critically important to education and learning:
• An educational research firm, CEMREL, Inc., issued a report concluding that in 67 specific studies made in California student achievement in reading, writing and math improved when the arts were included in the curriculum.
• In 1995, the Scholastic Assessment Test scores of students who studied the arts for more than four years were 59 points higher on the verbal test and 44 points higher on the math test than the scores of students with no course work or experience in the arts.
• In 1989, a landmark study from the U.S. Department of Labor on the preparation of America's youth for the workforce concluded that arts education helps students make important advances in the core competencies needed for employment.

These competencies include creative thinking, problem solving, and the exercise of individual responsibility, sociability, and self-esteem.

LINKS:
www.classactarts.org/

If I Were Minister of Culture:
• "The inclusion of music education and appreciation courses as part of the curriculum in primary, secondary and tertiary institutions, with appropriate support facilities such as musical instruments and tutors who recognize and appreciate the value of local music."
www.lloydstanbury.com/?s=if-i-were-the-jamaican-minister-of-culture

Music In Jamaican Secondary Schools:
www.mona.uwi.edu/ioe/research/investigating12.htm

Well Zed,I must admit a shortcoming of mine. My attention span. I have a hard time ever finishing something you write because it is so long. I usualy just skip to the bottom...

Zed, I do not want to get into an argument with you, but Sandy Bank is to a great extent a remedial learning school. Do you know for whom the majority of the computers are being used--and for what purpose the large computer room is being used? I believe ALL the children deserve to make the most out of themselves, not only those who are considered learning disabled.

BRAVO! unhappy insider...no arguer here, merely discoursing.

Your heroic point: I believe ALL the children deserve to make the most out of themselves, not only those who are considered learning disabled is intriguing in that there might be a suggestion, there, that we ALL learn best in different ways and that the Arts & "hands-on" or musical exercises open many a mind.

Is it not encouraging that so many of the TB Foundation scholarship winners aspire to be teachers, signaling out their principal, Miss Zane & Sheryl Alvaranga, as an examples they wish to follow?
Perhaps why Ms Sheryl is so admired is that she discovers the uniqueness, interests & learning style of her students, while attempting to keep ALL on a prescribed educational track to success(?).

Sorry, why me, about the length of the posting...just riffing on the wonders of Music and the gifts from our ancient ancestors (like contemplating the discovery of a bone flute, from 35,000 years ago, in a French cave! Imagine those sounds on a starry night of storytelling).

The large computer room is for computers I think. Am I wrong?

Yes Beth. I remember about 23 years ago when I was working for a large corporation in Massachusetts. I had a high school senior student working in my department for the summer. We were talking one day and she told me the capital of Rhode Island (a neighboring state)was Lincoln. I asked her why she thought Lincoln was the capital of Rhode Island and her reply was, "Because that's where the mall is.". I remembered being shocked at this - and again this was 23 years ago!

Fact is, Jamaican schools are poor and give an average education at best. Yes it is not an inclusive problem in Jamaica. But I'll bet if you pull 100 Americans off ther street and 100 Jamaicans off the street, more Americans can point to their country than Jamaicans. But who cares? At least Jamaicans can run and sing!

why me, you think running and singing are important huh? They well maybe, but what passes for singing I could do without hearing, and the running would matter if we were good at running things rather than running amok. We seem to be content with being entertainers rather than innovators!
Well,we do in fact have great runners and a lot of crazy people, according to our expert Psychiatrists.

I remember a few years ago having a conversation with a High Sch student. I said something about the Pope, and he asked me who was that! It's true that a large percentage of Americans would not be able to point out N. America or their own Sate on a map.
If they didn't give us anything else of value, the Colonials left us an excellent Primary education system. I live in the USA and can attest to the fact that newly arrived Jamaicans, who were exposed to early education in Ja., do much better than many American children, or even children from other countries.
On another note, I subscribe to the Montessori school system wherin kids are basically allowed to develop according to their individual skills and interests.

why me states categorically that "Jamaican schools are poor and give an average education at best".
Does this come from your personal experience and how you or family members were educated in the schools which you know about?
Would these schools be considered "country" schools burrowed in rural areas? Are they primary or secondary institutions of learning and are their facilities and teacher qualifications so poor that the students don't stand a snowballs chance in hell to succeed?

In recent times the top ten schools, with the best pass rates in CXC, CSEC & CAPE have usually been: Campion College--Immaculate Conception High-- Wolmer's Girls--St. Andrew High (for girls)--Bishop Gibson High--Munro College--Wolmer's Boys--Holy Childhood--Ardenne High--Westwood High.
This has not been a hard and fast ranking, but the ones accepting the very brightest students out of the primary schools with high GSAT scores.
Some others creep into this stellar echelon from time to time, with solicitous parents keeping on top of which other Parish schools are attracting good teachers, programs and facilities and their effectiveness in promoting civility & the handling of challenging disciplinary problems (violence).
To that end, parents, with means, can hire personal tutors, laying on extra lessons, hopefully to get their kids into the top schools, as a glide path to academic rigor and associations of life-long personal & professional relationships.

New Rankings for Secondary Schools: (June 2004), which although dated, may be some of the confirmation that why me is looking for!
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20040606/lead/lead3.html

List of Schools In Jamaica:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_schools_in_Jamaica

If Jamaican schools are so poor would someone tell me why there is a good online computer lab at Black River Primary and nothing but a small room where students studying for their GSATs at Sandy Bank Primary can use an online computer, and the Sandy Bank students have to share the use of a computer even when they are studying for their GSATs. Why does Black River get many things Sandy Bank doesn't. Why is there not equal opportunity for all St. Bess students. This is not fair.

A Brief "Structural" Overview of Education In Jamaica

LINK:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Jamaica

'Why me' I think you need to travel more.If I felt that Jamaican schools were so inferior I would not have educated my British born children in Jamaica-one of the best decisions I've ever made.I think we are the real experts because we have a basis for comparison.Despite Jamaica's manifold problems schools produce more on a fraction of the resources allocated to their first world counterparts.There are failing schools in the USA too and for many it's a zip code lottery. My daughter has friends in the USA who are telling her that when they were at school/college in Jamaica they were considered average students, now they are looked upon as 'brilliant' with little effort thanks to their 'inferior' Jamaican education. You need to speak to Jamaican teachers who have emigrated to the USA & the UK to teach. There are very able children in Jamaica who are falling through the net and the reasons boil down to poverty and poorly resourced schools. First world countries don't have the same challenges on as wide a scale but even so some children leave school unable to read and write and I meet many of them in my work.What I have observed over the years is that Jamaican teachers on the whole are very resourceful and creative and this has not gone un-noticed.Education is a two way process between the home and school and parents have to play their part. We can't leave it entirely to the school.

Barbara Joy Gloudon: Challenge to Education

FROM SCHOLARSHIP to Common Entrance to GSAT - call it what you will, that has been our educational rite of passage for the longest while. In earlier times, it was only by means of "the scholarship" that children of lesser financial means could hope to make it to secondary/high schools.
For many, it became a dream unrealised. For one, there were not as many secondary school places then as today. Today, there are many more "name brand" schools, there is more opportunity but not enough to fill all the needs.

Placement and proximity remain particularly challenging.

Over the years, there has been re-branding, re-naming, revolutionised systems of administration, teaching and learning. Things have been cut, fitted and retrofitted to blend into policy changes and the determination of every minister of education to leave his or her stamp upon the system. As it was in the beginning, so it is even now.
We've gone from chalkboard to computer. We've developed intricate programmes of testing and analysis, but come result time, parental anxiety is as high as it ever was.

Passing is not simply getting through. It is where you go when you make the journey. Entrance to "better" schools is the nearest thing to Heaven for parents, even more than students. Never mind the official justifications for why some pass, why some fail. Rejection is painful for everyone.

We tell the children who have not got into the inner circle, "Every little thing will be all right", knowing full well that it ain't necessarily so.
We have even had the extreme tragedy of children who took their lives rather than face the consequences of failure. The balm of counselling is offered, but sometimes it is too little too late.

Until the day when the movement of students from one level to another can be effected without it being of inflated national importance, we will continue to wrestle with the politics of schools and student placement.

We haven't got over the tension of newer versus older institutions.
Many of our newer schools are holding their own, graduating accomplished students who go on to do well at the tertiary level. They still have a way to go to gain full public acceptance.
We will have to leave it to time. Inevitably, the usual controversies will fade until we bring them back out again next year.

...the matter of proximity. Some students end up placed at unreasonably long distances from where they live. We've been led to believe that effort is made to minimise or eliminate such occurrences but with space still a problem, it happens. There are still students who have to traverse parish borders to get educated many miles away. It is said that when more schools are built, the burden will be eased, but until then the children take a battering in the cause of education. Let's commend them and their parents for their courage...

LINK:
www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/Challenge-to-education-and-Yaggarism_9055237

A Mini-Profile of Barbara Gloudon: 'Nowhere else I'd want to be'.
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/pages/roots/story3.html

I was just given the index and one edition of a British childrens book of knowledge from 1904.

The articles were writen by the leading scientists etc of the time. The theories of electricity and magnetism, the circulatory system, basic botany, some Latin, Greek, French and Spanish, the theory of music, shading and perspective, animal instinct and learning etc....for 8-12 year olds!

Locking em up in sun heated concrete boxes having to listen to what becomes a droning after 10 minutes, especially after a lunch of sugared water and a white flour thing, is bad design. Simple. No guilt or shame. The shame is when everyone knows and those that could don't.

Let the kids play, dance, sculpt, draw and uncover their creative side. Given the chance, the children could probably redesign the system without the rigmarole that fossilises us.

OBSERVER Opinion Piece (Excerpted):

Our Dream for Education:
WE trust we are not speaking too early. However, a week after the release of this year's Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT), this newspaper has the distinct impression of far less dissatisfaction among parents over the placement of their children in high schools, compared to years past.

It could well be that parents are becoming more acquainted with the selection process. As we understand it, so stiff is the competition for places that children are required to score in the high 80s to 90s in order to get into the school of their first choice.
Could it also be that many more parents are coming around to the view that some of those so-called non-traditional schools are not so bad after all?

Be that as it may, the word from the chief education officer... is that while the number of students placed in schools of their choice this year increased by three to four percentage points, it is becoming harder to get into traditional or 'name brand' high schools.

This newspaper expects that with the barring of illiterates from the high school system, the delivery of appropriate education at that level will become easier...

For sure, it should mean that high school teachers will become more accountable. Hopefully, too, a number of the upgraded schools will be more credible in the eyes of a critical public. Who knows, some of us may even live to see the day when parents won't find reasons to worry about the quality of the school in which their children are placed.

...the society will have to proactively address this issue of illiteracy in the school system...As we understand it, ASTEP, which is scheduled to begin in September, will focus on the development of basic literacy and numeracy skills, self-esteem and positive thinking, for up to two years...the programme will involve the use of computers and students' progress will be assessed on a monthly basis. It sounds good. But of course we cannot lose sight of the reality that even if ASTEP proves to be a monumental success, it can at best, be only a band aid.

The ultimate challenge is for the Ministry of Education and the schools to so improve education at the basic and primary level, that over time, by age eight or nine, illiteracy is eradicated among the mentally able.
www.jamaicaobserver.com/editorial/Our-dream-for-education_9083764

turey...your reason-ings about a "hot-house" learning environment led me to thinking about some of the success stories of "Home-schooling", which in the motivated guidance of able parents & counselors, have produced outstanding world citizens. Not for everyone, certainly. How many parents would have the time, knowledge, resources, energy or inclination to marshall such a program.
It does say a lot, however, about honing into the interests, motivation and learning styles of the individual student.

I used to feel vaguely sorry for home-schooled kids. What a shame, I thought, that they might be deprived of the well-rounded education and social skills to become integrated, productive members of society. I never thought to question why cafeteria food fights or the predatory pack habits of teenage girls would be better for molding productive members of society.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2002652185_woman29.html

From the beginning of the re-emergence of home-schooling in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the strongest criticism of home-schooling was that untrained, noncredentialed parents could not provide the quality of instruction needed to match the education provided in public and private schools. To address this criticism, the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) commissioned several studies to compare how home-schoolers score on standardized achievement tests compared to their public and private school counterparts.

The results of those tests demonstrated that on average, home-schooled children regularly outperformed their peers... What the test results demonstrate is that a home-school program tailored to the individual needs of the student is the best method of educating a child...the test results do show clearly what happens when you compare the best with the best: The best home-schooled students systematically outperform the best non-home-schooled students. This success did not happen automatically. It happened because tens of thousands of dedicated parents made tremendous sacrifices to educate their children.

I believe we can safely say the type of parental involvement children receive in a home-school environment and the learning environment created by the home are significant factors in the success of the home-school movement in academics.
www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/nov/30/testing-proves-success-of-grads/

Bill Cosby once said, "I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody."

Homeschoolers understand this well, and don't try to please everyone with their non-traditional choices. They aim to fill the needs of their children, and with that goal, it is very difficult to fail! In fact, success flourishes in the homeschool community, in many shapes and forms.

Success can be measured in numerous ways and is based on individual achievements; but success takes hard work, dedication, and focus -- something that homeschoolers also embrace on their own path to success.
www.homeschool.com/articles/successstories/default.asp

Education is a two way process between the home and school and parents have to play their part. We can't leave it entirely to the school.

THAT is the bottom line on EDUCATION....and US.does not have that, as the parents do not pay attention at what theire kids are doing, and a lot of them do not care....I have seen it, they are to busy with there jobs also. HAVING a family is a RESPONSABILITY that needs attention.

Last post was not here, but what if the parents canot read and write as is very common in Jamaica? So much for teaching at home eh?

Unfair said Black River Primary has a good online computer lab. Would someone please explain why there is not the same facility for the students at Sandy Bank.

To answer the question why Black River has a better computer lab: could it be that that is a result of more and better financed volunteers at Black River? Has anyone compared the equipment with those at Pedro Plains or any of the other nearby Primary Schools? Perhaps we may find that Sandy Bank is in relatively better shape.

I'd like to add my congratulations to the staff and students (what happened to the boys this year?), and sincere gratitude to Miss Kennedy and her Foundation for making these scholarships available.

The issue of the Arts & Music in the schools seems a bit spent in the Forum...thought there would be more of a contribution from teachers with some assuring examples.
In the meanwhile, may I just LINK to an article in the Smithsonian Magazine on EARTHQUAKE ART: Haiti's Artists Are Turning Unspeakable Devastation Into Exuberant Works...The Art of Resilience. Look no further than to our neighbours as to how confusion, loss and grief are being expressed, comforted and elevated through the Arts.

www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/In-Haiti-the-Art-of-Resiliance.html?device= bbery&c=y

Gosh Zed, maybe if our teachers had access to online computers we might hear something from them. The entire TB community is seriously behind the times when it comes to easy and convenient online computer access. We are sending our youngsters out into the world without the proper ammunition. Our teachers are dedicated but they are in overwhelm. A teacher can do only so much when she needs to watch 30-35 students who started school less prepared than expected.

Your comments on art and music are meant to be positive and I don't mean to sound negative, but these kids first need to learn to read and write and handle critical thinking to be able to move to the next level.

Look at the scholarship kids. By and large they came from homes where learning was stressed, where there were books and where parents or other family members took the time to encourage them and reinforce the importance of education. Not all our children are nearly as fortunate.

I was educated in Jamaica, and look how smart I am.

Stop messing around with me,sir/ma'am, I Spooky Dude did not pen that previous comment. TBNet this should not have passed your eagle-eyes.

Get used to it Spooky Dude. You are way too smart for there to be only one of You! In fact, you are living proof of Multi Worlds and Parallel Universes.

Peter Espeut on the Education System-inequality has been woven into the fabric of Jamaican society.

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20110701/cleisure/cleisure2.html

Rising Employment in the "Film" Arts:
Film, music and other creative-industry jobs doubled in 2010, resulting in a 61 per cent rise in spending to some $574 million when compared to employment levels in the industry a year before.

Some 1,540 persons were employed for these projects, compared to about 740 in 2009, according to recently released data in the Economic and Social Survey Jamaica 2010.

The increased employment came when most other sectors experienced job cuts due to the global and local recession.

JAMPRO, through its Creative Industries Unit and Film Commission, administered 89 creative-industry projects for 2010; 19 more than in 2009.
The projects were in film/TV which made the bulk of profits, followed by photography, music and radio.

While the expenditure is mind-boggling to many, for Gillian MacDaniel, senior consulting officer at the Film Commission, more can be done.

"...A lot of people think of Jamaica as just sun, beach and sand, but there is so much more. We have acting talent and technical talent. There is a lot of variety, not only with the scenery, but also with the people."
More than 3,000 film projects have been serviced by the Jamaica Film Commission since it was established in 1984... the music industry has long been a steady contributor to the creative industries as well.

LINK:
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20110703/ent/ent1.html

Free Cable & Internet For North Coast Schools:

Can We Get What We Really Want?
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20110703/news/news8.html

Peter Chin::Art In Motion: Tribal Crackling Wind

www.jamaicaobserver.com/lifestyle/Art-in-Motion_9097204