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#22
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Songs they don't teach any more
"Scott" wrote in message ... I was amazed to learn this month that my kids (10.5 and almost 8) have not learned the words to 'Erie Canal'. I thought that was required learning for elementary schoolers everywhere, but it seems I was mistaken. Scott DD 10.5 and DS 7.9 Erie Canal is in the grade 5 Macmillan-McGraw Hill Music book. I don't have the Silver Burdett at home, but it is similar. Grade 5 is usually when the big push on US history comes into play, and therefore a lot of the traditional folk songs come in at this age. |
#23
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Songs they don't teach any more
"Hillary Israeli" wrote in message ... In , Leah Adezio wrote: *I wonder if it is more a generational thing -- after all, those of us who *are in our 40's now were schoolchildren in the late 60's - early 70s when *folk music was coming to the forefront of the American musical scene, and *with it, an interest in early Americana folk songs. Well, I'm 33 (34 next month!). *The music books we had in 3rd-5th grade (1968-71) were full of songs like *'Erie Canal', 'Shenandoah' (probably sp), 'Red River Valley', 'Kumbaya', 'Go *Down Moses' (I specifically remember singing this as a solo during class *when I was in 3rd grade), 'Go Tell Aunt Rhody', 'Skye Boat Song', 'Where *Have All the Flowers Gone', 'This Land is Your Land', 'Kukaburra', 'Waltzing *Matilda' and the ilk. Yes, I know these aren't all American folk songs, but We had Shenandoah, Kumbaya, Go Down Moses, Where Have all the Flowers Gone, This Land is Your Land, Kookaburra, and Waltzing Mathilda, for sure. Definitely not those other ones, though What music is taught depends heavily on the philosophy of the music teacher. Orff or Kodaly trained teachers will lean heavily towards folk songs, both US and international. Teachers who are more traditional/choral will do fewer folk songs, and more choral works, which generally means either new music or more classical music. Both Orff and Kodaly were predominantly musicologists, and teachers trained in their tradition have similar focuses. The Macmillan series is designed for Orff/Kodaly-type instruction, and is heavy on folk songs, but other common resources such as Music Alive! barely touch on the American folk song tradition. Music K-8, which is often used because it is much less expensive than textbooks, includes maybe 1 folk song out of 10 pieces. (I use Music K-8 as a supplement, but use Macmillan as the primary text for my classes, plus lots of other Orff resources. I don't use Music Alive! at all.) Almost no music teacher goes cover to cover in the books, both because there isn't enough time, and because you quickly learn which songs work and which don't really work well with your children-and there are always some in each book which fall totally flat with the kids-and which the teacher isn't thrilled with, either. The grade 6 Macmillan book includes a lot of '80's bubblegum pop songs, which the kids don't like at all-and which don't serve any objectives which can't be reached by much more appealing music. -- hillary israeli vmd http://www.hillary.net "uber vaccae in quattuor partes divisum est." not-so-newly minted veterinarian-at-large |
#24
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Songs they don't teach any more
In article , H Schinske says...
wrote: Many of the folk songs we learned in elementary school came out of the folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s, such as: Michael Row The Boat Ashore, If I Had A Hammer, Tom Dooley, Drill Ye Tarriers, man, a little walk down memory lane -- I could go on and on. Your list made me recall that one of the songs I came home from kindergarten singing was "Maxwell's Silver Hammer." I don't know if I learned it from the teacher or another child, though! Probably the latter. That's The Beatles; not a folk song. Banty |
#25
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Songs they don't teach any more
In article , user says...
On Mon, 19 Jan 2004 21:19:24 EST, Banty wrote: In article , Scott says... I was amazed to learn this month that my kids (10.5 and almost 8) have not learned the words to 'Erie Canal'. I thought that was required learning for elementary schoolers everywhere, but it seems I was mistaken. Scott DD 10.5 and DS 7.9 I never heard it until I lived in Rochester, New York. I thought it was local (Rochester is close to the canal, called the "barge canal" there), until I heard it on a Wee Sings tape. Fellow Rochestarians are everywhere. ;-) If you count living there for one summer whilst working for The Great Yellow Father... Banty (..and learning how to play bocce near Lyell Ave.) |
#26
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Songs they don't teach any more
In article , Leah Adezio says...
"Iowacookiemom" wrote in message ... I grew up in WI and didn't learn "Erie Canal," but I vividly remember that it seemed like the whole curriculum for 4th grade music consisted of us singing "Red River Valley." I wonder if it is more a generational thing -- after all, those of us who are in our 40's now were schoolchildren in the late 60's - early 70s when folk music was coming to the forefront of the American musical scene, and with it, an interest in early Americana folk songs. The music books we had in 3rd-5th grade (1968-71) were full of songs like 'Erie Canal', 'Shenandoah' (probably sp), 'Red River Valley', 'Kumbaya', 'Go Down Moses' (I specifically remember singing this as a solo during class when I was in 3rd grade), 'Go Tell Aunt Rhody', 'Skye Boat Song', 'Where Have All the Flowers Gone', 'This Land is Your Land', 'Kukaburra', 'Waltzing Matilda' and the ilk. Yes, I know these aren't all American folk songs, but there was a definite trend towards the study of *folk* music during that time. Leah You mean they didn't teach you "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prarie" ??!? Banty (maybe it was a Wichita Falls thing...) |
#27
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Songs they don't teach any more
"chiam margalit" wrote in message YOu've never heard the song, or heard kids learning the song? I find it almost impossible to believe anyone hasn't heard the song (Chorus is "Low Bridge, Everybody Down, Low Bridge, Cause we're Coming to a Town, Well you'll always know your neighbor, You'll always know your pal, if you've ever navigated on the Erie Canal." It's on about a million PBS/History channel specials. :-) Never heard of it. Marijke |
#28
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Songs they don't teach any more
"H Schinske" wrote in message ... wrote: Many of the folk songs we learned in elementary school came out of the folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s, such as: Michael Row The Boat Ashore, If I Had A Hammer, Tom Dooley, Drill Ye Tarriers, man, a little walk down memory lane -- I could go on and on. Your list made me recall that one of the songs I came home from kindergarten singing was "Maxwell's Silver Hammer." I don't know if I learned it from the teacher or another child, though! Probably the latter. Tom Dooley is in my Guitar book for my 3rd-5th graders, but given today's zero-tolerance for mention of violence, I rather figure I should skip that one! Same with some of the other folk songs. --Helen |
#29
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Songs they don't teach any more
On Thu, 22 Jan 2004 12:23:04 EST, Donna Metler wrote:
"H Schinske" wrote in message ... wrote: Many of the folk songs we learned in elementary school came out of the folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s, such as: Michael Row The Boat Ashore, If I Had A Hammer, Tom Dooley, Drill Ye Tarriers, man, a little walk down memory lane -- I could go on and on. Your list made me recall that one of the songs I came home from kindergarten singing was "Maxwell's Silver Hammer." I don't know if I learned it from the teacher or another child, though! Probably the latter. Tom Dooley is in my Guitar book for my 3rd-5th graders, but given today's zero-tolerance for mention of violence, I rather figure I should skip that one! Same with some of the other folk songs. Interesting that you should mention that... I'm taking my DS, who will be 3-1/2 at the time, on a weekend trip to Fort Klock ( http://www.fortklock.com ) for, interspersed with some genealogy research, their Colonial camp life re-enactment. I mentioned this to one friend, who thought I was absolutely nuts to take a child that small to an event where people would be "pretending to kill each other". I then mentioned it to another friend who is in the midst of teaching a unit on the Revolutionary War period to her combined 5th/6th grade class, and she told me that the curriculum skips entirely over *any* facts relating to casualties. if she stuck entirely to the approved lesson material, the kids would only know that a battle occurred on such-and-such a date, and that it's generally accepted that side X won. Particularly when it comes to the Revolution, where "major" battles in Upstate NY often involved only a few dozen or hundred combatants with very few casualties, it seems like the students are missing out on both the facts and the context - it would be too easy for them to imagine that the battles involved tens or hundreds of thousands of soldiers as in the Civil War or later engagements. Anyhow, I'm curious about how sanitized current Elementary and Middle/High school texts have become, in regards to history. I have distinct recollections of seeing many graphic Matthew Brady photographs in my texts from the early 1980's, and was wondering if that was still the case. |
#30
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Songs they don't teach any more
I'm finding this discussion particularly interesting, especially considering
the fact that so many school districts have decreased the quantity of music education in the curriculum. When I was in elementary school (70s) and middle school (79-81) I do remember learning "Erie Canal". My memories include TONS of patriotic songs and songs like Erie Canal that seem to discuss American history. Someone else mentioned Home on the Range, and that was part of our reperoitoire as well. I bought several of the Wee Sing tapes when my DD (age 7) was a toddler, and was surprised that I knew almost all of gthe songs on all of the tapes (though I think I learned as many or more of them at YMCA Camp and in Girl Scouts as I did in school). My middle school music experience was based soley on the whims of our music teacher I think. All I remember from music class in middle school was that we learned "Greensleeves", "Morning has Broken", "One Tin Solider", "The boxer" and we did an in depth study of "Tommy". tracey in CT |
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