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Friday 19 September 2014

Enduring sources of discipline vs sanctions

By Swheatie of the KUWG, with some help from American educator John Holt and from Lebanese artist, poet and writer Kahlil Gibran

"Work is love made visible."
— Kahlil Gibran, 'The Prophet'
"I want to combat the idea that any disciplined and demanding activity, above all music, can never grow out of love, joy, and free choice, but must be rooted in forced exposure, coercion, and threat [sanctions]. Most of what I have read about music education says this one way or another. The idea is not only mistaken, but dangerous; nothing is more certain to make most people ignore or even hate great music than trying to ram more and more of it down the throats of more and more children in compulsory classes and lessons. The idea is wrong in a larger sense; in the long run, love and joy are more enduring sources of discipline and commitment than any amount of bribe and threat, and it is only what C Wright Mills called the 'crackpot realism' of our times that keeps us from seeing, or even being willing to see, that this is so. [Swheatie's emphasis]"
— John Holt

As in music education, so in jobsearch and career building? Do those who are intent on issuing sanctions to benefit claimants really have any love for them?

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