Is there any sound as endearingly horrific as your child learning to play the violin?
Many parents haul their kids to music lessons each week and insist on daily practice. For the most part, unless they have extensive musical training, they rely on the music teacher to teach the kids the basics of bowing, the fundamentals of fingering, and the rationality of rhythms.
Imagine what might ensue when a parent disputes the music teacher's instruction.
"No, that round open shape is NOT a whole note, it's a quarter note!"
or, "Why do you insist that pianissimo means very, very soft? Don't you know about a list of 700 musicians who contend it actually represents very loud? It makes so much more sense because a piano is large and heavy and it can be played loudly, so OBVIOUSLY pianissimo is supposed to mean very loud!"
Of course, the music teacher - and many of the other parents - would rightly conclude that the complaining parent had no knowledge of music, but had a lot of nerve berating a musical expert about music.
For example, this morning the violin teacher asked me to fill in while he ran to get a different book. I tried to keep the beat for the class as best as I could, but I recognize that I have no more business trying to teach violin than he does trying to teach my science class.
So why is it that those who deny evolution are often lauded by others for loudly expressing their non-acceptance of a theory about which they know nothing? What part of "expert in the relevant field" do they not understand?
It's as though they're tone-deaf, but still they insist that the Berlin Philharmonic is grossly out of tune.
Can improving science education end this complete cognitive dissonance? Or does the issue go deeper . . .
Do hearts need to be changed instead of minds?
Jeremy sings of another approach to achieving harmony instead of dissonance. Enjoy Jeremy's talents!
posted by Cheryl Shepherd-Adams
