PRIME MINISTER Kamla Persad-Bissessar yesterday (Thursday May 10, 2012) praised the Pan in Classroom programme and pledged Government's continued support for the project in which the national instrument is used to teach music to students.
"I am advised by the Minister of Education that contrary to the views of some, the programme with pan in schools never stopped, will not stop, will never stop and will continue in the schools of Trinidad and Tobago," Persad Bissessar assured after a performance of the Marabella South Secondary School Steel Orchestra.
T he steel orchestra performed calypsonian Denyse Plummer's "Nah Leaving" during an official ceremony for the opening of thr school at Gopaul Lands, Marabella.
Persad-Bissessar announcement that pan education programme has not been discontinued was greeted by applause.
Last month, Gopeesingh told a post Cabinet media briefing that the Ministry of Education's steelpan unit would be changed to incorporate other musical instruments including guitar, cuatro, African drum set, dholak, harmonium, tabla, tassa drum, xylophone, and non melodic instruments.
"Cabinet has agreed to the introduction of a multicultural forum of members in the primary and secondary schools, representative of the country's diverse cultures, and the Ministry of Education's steel pan unit will be changed so as to handle more type of music," Gopeesingh had told reporters last month.
Yesterday, the minister also addressed the "misconception and misunderstanding" about the future of pan education project and reiterated that other musical instruments will be placed in schools to encourage and a better appreciation of music. (from newsday 08/05/2012)
Replies
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Pan-Trinbago-takes-pan-into-sch...
Congratulation, Dr Lincoln Douglas on your appointment of Minister of Arts and Multiculturalism as a pan enthusiast I look forward of you liaison with the steelpan movement on WST.
In your portfolio the steelpan is the major component of the Arts and Multiculturalism. WST is the bible of the steelpan movement globally and I hope you would gleam from the discussions on the forum to make your job easier.....
Does the pan curriculum include the history of the instrument and the history of the "invention" and the "movement"? If it does not, then I cannot consider this program as taking the "academic" approach. Again, when it comes to the instrument we know as "pan", there seems to be a different, more lenient approach to "education", for certainly no classical violinist, nor any jazz trumpeter, receives their secular education, without looking into the history (from a socio-historic standpoint) of the instrument and genre of music attached to the instrument. As a jazz student, I had to learn about the African American experiences of chattel slavery, plantation (Delta) life, and "Jim Crow", which are ALL partly responsible for these "Black" contributions to "American culture". I am certain, that all classical musicians have to study the life and times of persons like Beethoven and Mozart, and even though I was not a classical music major, I still had to study the Ars Nova, the Gregorian chants, look at the film "Amadeus", the Renaissance period, Baroque music and sonata forms, etc. It is unfortunate and myopic to not include the history of the steel drum or pan, the steelband nor the African influences and social conditions, which led to the "invention" of the instrument, and equally short-sighted to not include the social struggles that became known as "the steelband movement", both approaches, of which, have little to do with the music, and more to do with the people and their struggles, in a race-based, colour-based, and class-based colonial society. Until we approach pan studies, as any other "traditional" arts studies, we can never really promote any pan curricula as being valid secular academic programs. That is my opinion, and also why, as early as fifty years ago, students from other countries have also taken the time to not just learn to play the instrument, but to study the social and political events that led a people to "invention". Hopefully, we as an "educated" nation, come to understand that music, as a discipline, should be no different contextually speaking, than any other academic discipline. An aeronautical engineer doesn't just learn how to build planes; he or she studies the life and times of the Wright brothers and Bernoulli (as examples), in addition to the technical stuff on fluid mechanics and wind-flow in a vacuum or around an airfoil. In any event, as the children of Soweto chimed: LIBERATION BEFORE EDUCATION!!! I second that emotion.
In Ma'at,
George D. Goddard, B.A. Music (Cum Laude). Florida Memorial University
Lifetime Member of the National Scholars Honor Society
Pan'tum - The Ghost Who Talks. Honoring The Legacy Of George "Sonny" Goddard
Ghost you are again on point.
A quick look at the mandatory core curriculum of many of America's Ivy League Universities will show some form of music humanities is a critical component their studies of western civilization. In these classes the lives and circumstances around the great classical composers, the era and instruments are the focus. Again, these courses are mandatory for everybody not just music majors.
bugs
I wish to echo the words of Pan.tum.. the curriculum must include a thorough review of the History of the Pan and the people who make up the history as well as the evolution of all aspects of the Pan Movement. It really must be a comprehensive approach. I wish to encourage some of our Nationals at home or abroad to take up Higher Academic studies whereby they can be contributors to the history, evolution and development of the Steelpan so that there can be local indigenous based information directly freom the perspectives of Trinbagonians
Good points Ghost
Salah
Music school in panyard project set to start
The Ministry of The Arts and Multiculturalism has spent $300,000 to purchase musical instruments to facilitate the Music School in the Panyard programme. This according to Auburn Wiltshire, project manager of the initiative, in answer to a query at the first Workshop for Tutors held at Theatre 2 at the National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA), Port-of-Spain, on Wednesday. Among the instruments purchased for use by students in the programme, he said, were trumpets, saxophones, clarinets and trombones. The all-day workshop, titled Semester 1, was attended by 38 tutors contracted by the ministry to implement the project scheduled to begin on Monday, and continue for four months, ending on October 13. It will consist of 112 contact hours in which students will be trained in the fundamentals of music literacy; the art of playing the steelpan, guitar, saxophone, trumpet, trombone and clarinet; beginner, intermediate and advanced playing techniques; music composition; basics of sight reading of music; care and maintenance of instruments; hand techniques and playing posture; appreciation of rhythm, tempo, various scales of music and the phrasing of music; and familiarisation with the standard terms of music.
They are expected to benefit, as well, from a brief history of the steelpan, string and wind instruments. Venues that will host the initial programme are: Casablanca Pan Theatre (Northern Region), Republic Bank Exodus, Sangre Grande Cordettes and Potential Symphony Pan Theatres (Eastern Region), Couva Joylanders (Central Region) and Junior Sammy Group Skiffle Bunch (Southern Region). Director of Culture, Ingrid Ryan Ruben, in welcoming participants to the workshop, admonished them to remember that the panyards in which they will be conducting classes are creative, musical spaces in which “the highest level of creativity was spawned from the blood of Trinbagonians.” “Always honour that space,” she said. “See the pupils who come to classes there as future geniuses, so your purpose is to help develop their growth as musicians. Be mindful of the attitude you take into the panyard. What you go there to do is help. So always honour those who have kept the panyards going throughout the years with their dedication to music.”
It was expected, she added, that in the next three years music schools would be established in all panyards across Trinidad and Tobago. The Music School in the Panyard programme also incorporates a mentorship programme titled the Artiste-in-Residence Initiative in which master artistes and icons will provide complementary service to the tutors and other staff in addressing the needs of the students in overcoming the barriers to learning in order to achieve their full potential.Icons selected for the programme are musicians Errol Ince, Dr Roy Cape, Pelham Goddard and Leston Paul. They were present at the workshop, along with Joey Rivers, to give brief accounts of their musical backgrounds, share techniques, and offer suggestions to the tutors. Guest speaker was ethnomusicologist Prof Jocelyne Guilbault of the Department of Music, University of California Berkeley in California.
Why isn't the Music School in the Panyard not concentrating on teaching music utilizing the pan? Why are there any other instruments involved? This program should be focused on teaching pan players the ability to communicate with other musicians by enabling the expansion of their musical abilities through theoretical an practical applications using the pan as the main if not the only instrument.
This seems to be yet another way to dilute the emphasis on pan and it is disgraceful that this is happening in of all places the panyard. It's all fine and good to teach music literacy to the youth but all I see here is further disrespect for the national instrument by introducing other instruments into a music program taking place in the very houses of pan. Something is just not right here. It will be interesting to see where this goes.
Terry this is very good news, I hope plans are on the drawing board for after these students finish the first phase.
Friday June 15, 2012 the MINISTRY OF EDUCATION put out a full page AD in the newspapers "Pan is in school to stay"
The Ministry of Education has always stood in respect and support of the Pan in the Classroom Programme. Ever since taking office in 2010, this Administration has displayed and maintained its commitment to the principles of equal opportunity , at every level of our social life - from Education to Culture, and beyound.
It is for that reason - plus all of the goodness this indigenous cultural learning opportunity brings to our young citizens in classroom across the country - we affirm our retention of the Pan in the Classroom initiative, and indeed plan to learn from and widen its impact.
Our esteemed Prime Minister the Honorable Mrs Kamla Persad - Bissessar declared the official position of the PP Alliance Government at the opening of the Marabella South Secondary School on Wednesday 10th May 2012 when she told the gathering, and the wider nation, most emphatically: "Pan is here to stay! The programme has never stopped, it will never stop, and it will continue in schools across T&T"
The Ministry of Education provides the following summary of recommendation made by the Finance and General Purposes Committee of Cabinet on March 26th 2012, the pertinent Cabinet Note having been submitted on January 25th 2012.
Do not listen to rumors - we are on top of this.........
-
1
-
2
-
3
-
4
-
5
of 5 Next