Stephen Crabbe is a teacher, writer, musician and practising member of the Anglican Church. He has had many years of active involvement in community and political issues.
Stephen Crabbe was the author of the above post (4). He got very little comment on The Forum where he posted it.
I have discovered a couple of his older posts that are interesting too
EG
Quote:
Giving boys a voice
By Stephen Crabbe - posted Friday, 29 April 2005
Our culture discourages males in particular from singing. Women in general will sing at a party more readily than the men. Mothers will sing with their children far more often than fathers do. In most community choirs it is extremely difficult to recruit enough tenors and basses. The taboo against male singing is apparent even among primary school children.
Once, hoping to inspire some primary-school kids with no experience of excellent singing by unchanged voices, I played a CD recording of one of my former boy-treble choristers. I presented the performance without revealing anything about the singer, and they seemed impressed. But when I mentioned the singer’s name, many boys snickered. “You mean that’s a boy?” they sneered. “He sounds like a girl!”
Like other singing teachers I’ve encountered this reaction often. Many, perhaps most, boys are afraid of sounding like girls, even if they secretly love to sing. They may therefore sing half-heartedly at best, or only in an artificially low pitch which is unhealthy for the vocal cords. Quite a few refuse to sing at all.
Many of those boys who do sing well and with enjoyment in childhood stop completely when they come to the difficult age of the voice-change. While girls may find a small vocal change in adolescence it is not anything like the challenge facing boys.
A healthier, happier and more meaningful Australia would be the result if we were to set about growing a singing culture.
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Giving boys a voice - On Line Opinion - 29/4/2005
Quote:
There is abundant evidence that individuals tend to prefer one perceptual modality or another, and that this needs serious consideration in educational planning.
Visual types prefer pictures, the written word, and the teacher’s demonstrations; aural types would rather listen to a lecture, discuss with a group or even talk themselves; tactile and other types would choose other activities. Despite the findings of researchers, sensory preference is still much ignored in most education programs.
Teachers in the staffroom shrug wearily over the poor listening skills of their students. The crammed daily timetable gives little hope of inserting regular sequential lessons in effective use of voice and ear.
Yet even children whose preferred sensory modality is auditory would benefit from giving oral language the same status as written language throughout their schooling. The long-standing neglect of good musical education should also be corrected.
And in the wider community we should be promoting discussion circles, public speaking and debating, community music concerts. Perhaps people should be encouraged to talk to themselves aloud – and respond.
I’m sure that for some it would be far more effective than trying to sort out their ideas by scribbling on paper in silence.
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An emphasis on hearing skills would give our children a better education - On Line Opinion - 3/3/2004
Giving our culture a new voice - how singing makes life a bit nicer
Giving our culture a new voice - how singing makes life a bit nicer - On Line Opinion - 22/1/2004
