happy?

I just came across this post on Denying Phoenix, a blog written by my friend and former coworker, Brian. This portion of the post made me think, and will make you think, too:

I often wonder if cutting out art & music programs in so many schools has helped erode an entire generation's ability to appreciate things. Appreciation is not something wholly innate, it is something I think is at least partially learned. And my generation was never taught how to listen to a Bach song and soak in the intricacies of the string sections, or look at a Pollack painting and see anything more than some splattered paint. And now we've grown up into a work force where someone responding to your email at 11:30 at night isn't a sign of commitment (or even sadness), it's simply expected. Nothing is amazing, everything is ordinary. Nobody is happy.

Comments

[Susan]

A really good point about appreciation being learned...and there is certainly no reason that schools and parents should not work in tandem on this. The arts make room for the marvellous.

I don't know if I would connect this with happiness partuclarly - human beings have always been a restless, discontented lot (with artists notoriously being no exception).

[J]

I'm still wondering when and why it was designated the schools' responsibility to cultivate these values or any others and not the parents'. Take your kid to a museum or a concert, for pity's sake!

[Hilari]

How true. Students today don't think cognitively. They can say they like or dislike a painting or aria or poem, but they can't say why. It's so sad.