I confess. I love the “standards.” In fact, when the President proposed “No Child Left Behind,” an educational program that called for all American children to master the standards by the time they graduated high school, I was thrilled. What clearer sign of cultural progress than a country where literacy includes Gershwin, Cole Porter, Dorothy Fields, Rodgers and Hart, and Duke Ellington? Sending in Sam Cooke seemed okay. I thought to myself that even if you somehow include Bob Thiele and George Weiss, this would be truly a “wonderful world.”
In the last decade, a lot of people have lamented the loss of spiritual education in public schools, then the same people turn around and say, “Let’s fix public education by eliminating everything but reading, writing, and math.”
Spiritual education doesn’t have to consist of endless study of the Bible, Q’uran, or the Gitas. I know this isn’t American Sufi or even American Shaker but music often addresses the needs of the spirit in surprisingly ecumenical fashion. Our music is part of our cultural and spiritual identity and is as much a part of being an educated, and I might add sane, adult as, say, knowing what “on paper” means. I’ve also always believed that it’s called “harmony” for a reason — great music connects our souls.
Idol's standards week somehow reminded me of all this. For the last three shows, I’ve been complaining that the music and the performances on the show had been less than memorable. Whether it was letting the seven remaining contestants sing Gershwin, Isham Jones, Rodgers and Hart, and Strachey and Link, or the supportive coaching of Rod Stewart (who knew that the guy is a hugging fool?), I actually enjoyed the music this time and am tempted to declare a snark moratorium — well, at least for a few paragraphs.
With better music, the producers of the show also seemed to back off the circus stuff. Paula did interrupt Simon a couple of times, but the run of homoerotic banter between Simon and Ryan was left offstage, Randy spoke in English, and guest Idol Rod Stewart didn’t say or do anything to stir reality-fueled controversy. The only thing I noticed was that Paris’ mother chaperoned her daughter’s visit just in case Rod was starting to shop for another younger girlfriend and trying to make “Tonight the Night.” Simon’s recent run of off-the-wall criticisms was even limited to telling Paris that her speaking voice sounds like Minnie Mouse.
In the coded realm of Idol, some were making a big deal of an announcement of "no fooling with the arrangements." To some, this appeared to be a “Chris Daughtry, we’re looking at you” moment and a warning that the show wasn't going to let him do “All the Things You Are” with laser lights and menacing screams. Instead, Daughtry took “What a Wonderful World” and went Perry Como with it.
Article comments
1 - Ann
PETME lol
great article one of your very best
2 - Victoria Thompson
I love your article! you and I share many of the same views! I actually wrote a blog on my site about Kellie today. I think you may find it interesting. I heard that there is a scandle involving getting her off the show. If you want to check it out, here's the link:
Realitychecks Hot Debates
3 - chancelucky
Ann and Victoria,
thanks very much for taking the time to both read and comment.
I'll actually be sad if and when Kellie gets voted off. I don't think she's a great singer, but she makes for good tv. I do think she's got to come up with a few wrinkles for her act, but apparently she's just 19.
4 - SteveS
I'm not sure why you are praising no child left behind in an American Idol thread.
source NY Times (free registration required).
Because of No Child Left Behind, many schools, particularly for low-proficiency students, have done away with classes like music.
“Teaching to the test” is a short-sighted method, and has been proven to limit children’s cognitive skills. Our children are now at a learning capacity of three years behind where they were at the equivalent age 15 years ago.
It would be nice to teach our kids the standards. Gearing their education to pass specific reading and math tests sure isn't doing it. Fewer kids are learning about the standards today than ever before.
5 - chancelucky
I'm not sure I praised NCLB. You may be taking the third sentence a bit too literally and isolating it from the fourth sentence. I don't know if you read the next couple paragraphs of the review, but I hope they make my take on NCLB fairly clear.
If not, I guess I just don't write that well.
btw, I'd rather have people master or meet standards than learn about them.
link to a good source on testing and standards in education
also I do like the position that Fred Newmann took on testing. If you read NCLB carefully, it doesn't require schools to teach to the tests, it requires them to make sure students demonstrate proficiency with the standards. Newmann's work looked at so called "constructivist" pedagogy and argued persuasively that it got better results on even traditional tests like Stanford 9 or even the slightly more wholistic Terranova than the more prevalent drill and kill methods.
Of course, that raises a couple questions about NCLB itself. Does NCLB really provide the funding to encourage the kind of brain-based pedagogy that really works? Second, Why do the states adopt assessment systems that are built around quick and dirty portraits of students' actual skills. (mulitple choice tests).
The actual act doesn't in fact require it, though the counter argument is that it would be too expensive and subjective to adopt other methods.
Also, there's an open question as to whether the states adopted appropriate standards. While decoding matters and can be picked up in multiple choice tests, the ability to read nuance, irony, etc. can be very hard to test for that way. For instance, a literal interpretation of a review can be "correct" in a strict sense and that reader might actually test "competent", but the same reader may quite easily miss the possibility that the author was being facetious rather than literal or engaging in wordplay to make a complex point. How does one write a standard say for one's capacity to get jokes?
There are any number of adult "operational" readers wandering the US pre and post NCLB as opposed to individuals who are deeply literate.
Monte Neill (from Fair Test) did tell me that the State of Wyoming of all places was looking at assessments that involved more authentic performance than pen and paper multiple choice tests, but I honestly don't know what happened to the initiative.
6 - SteveS
You may be taking the third sentence a bit too literally and isolating it from the fourth sentence.
I think I did take it too literally and didn't catch your play on the word 'standards'.
For instance, a literal interpretation of a review can be "correct" in a strict sense and that reader might actually test "competent", but the same reader may quite easily miss the possibility that the author was being facetious rather than literal or engaging in wordplay to make a complex point. How does one write a standard say for one's capacity to get jokes?
Ha ha.
This is why I homeschool.
7 - chancelucky
Steve,
thanks for being a good sport about it. After I posted, I was a little worried that I'd gone too far.
8 - Rod
"...My favorite version of "That's All" remains Irene Kral's, who, like Ace, was a small-voiced singer, but whose phrasing always illuminated the lyric in a way that Beanie Man never quite managed between poses. ..."
Being quite an Irene Kral fan, I don't think she ever recorded or performed that song. You could, however, be thinking of June Christy who practically owned that song. But neither one of these grand ladies could be considered "small voiced" simply because they didn't scream everything in a one octave range like all the Idol no-talents. Any singer wishing to be remembered for more than 15 minutes would do well to study the beauty that Irene and June created all of their adult lives. Anyway, you hit the note on the head with the comment "whose phrasing always illuminated the lyric".
9 - chancelucky
Rod,
thanks for catching my mistake. I could have sworn I was remembering listening to an Irene Kral version over and over, but checked her discophragy and you're right. How embarrassing!!! I've edited out the reference, not even sure what version I was thinking of, but it would have been a great song for her :}
I don't think of Kral as small-voiced in the sense of Blossome Dearie, iirc (though apparently that's not as reliable as I'd like) she started with Herb Pomeroy and very few big band singers have small voices, but she definitely didn't care to do the pyrotechnics.
Years ago, I remember I picked up her Where is Love album on a whim, first thought "not my kind of music" then found I couldn't stop listening to it. Utterly direct, perfect phrasing, all about the song and the music. I don't know that she wanted wider recognition, again iirc she took time out of the business to raise kids. But definitely a shame that she died so early. Honestly, I was trying to slip in some mention of her just so people might ask "Who, what?" and maybe have a listen.
Her brother Roy also had a great voice, though I preferred Irene's artistry.
10 - Tori (Victoria)
Thanks a million for taking the time to come to go to my site and read my blog! That was very kind of you to comment! Because of your actions I will now be a reader of your work! Let this be a lesson to other bloggers: take that extra minute to give feedback, it goes a long way!!!
You know what, Kellie reminds me WAY (blod, caps and underlined!) too much of Jessica Simpson! She's trying to be the "bubbly blonde" but, to me, it comes across F-A-K-E! I honestly think that she may have a REAL personality under all of that!
Anyway, I found some real "dirt" about our friend Kellie. I am almost disgusted! If you get a chance, please
check this out! I promised you'll be surprised!!!!
11 - Joanie
Congrats! This article has been placed on Advance.net