MUSIC IN SCHOOLS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 262, 26 January 1928, Page 10

MUSIC IN SCHOOLS

BETTER THAN LONG ‘TORPROFESSOR SHELLEY’S OPlfflOff (Special to THE SUE.) CHRISTCHURCH. Wed “If I had the choice between turning music or mathemetice out of schools, I would turn out rnatHematics. Too much time t given to ‘long tote’ in New Zealand." said Professor J. Shelley in addressing the annual confe-snce of the New Zealand Society of Pr«. fessional Teachers of Music, which began in Christchurch to-day. Professor Shelley said that mime served a valuable educative purpoc? and teachers of music served a definite purpose in educational life. If he had the choice of turning music or math*, matics out of the primary ?choola he would turn out mathematics. That, to a New Zealander, might sound like heresy, but it would not be wrong. “One of the really great educational heresies to-day was the over-emphasis placed on intellectual side of education on children of too young an age. Intellectual heresy was gradually r*— though not to such an extent in New Zealand as it should. Too much time was given to ‘long-tots’ in New Zee. land. In England to-day ‘long-tots' were hardly ever done.” “In various times in the history of the world music had dominated th» spirits of countries and had governed the spirit of the renaissance in England. Music In those days was a fora of community expression.”