Why don't kids nowadays know about Jazz and classi

"Because the corporate powers that control the media and bought politicans with cash payoffs decided in the early 80's to "dumb down" the entire US population.

By introducing "info-tainment" and confusing fact with fiction (a specialty of the current president) and deleting arts education, we've arrived at the abysmal place where we are today."

Got to agree with that. The attention span of the average American today appears to be about 5 minutes. Local TV news in the Boston area is absurd. Sad, very sad.

Paul :-)

Just make sure they stay AWAY from rap, for starters.

Short answer: State and federal funding for the arts in school is drying up. My daughters school is barely surviving with its music program.

Though it's a public school, it relies heavily on fundraisers and donations from the parents, as the state funding is starting to dwindle.

Honestly, you cannot make a child appreciate higher or refined levels of music unless it starts in the home. At least when I play "Swan Lake", my daughter starts playing around and fakes ballet moves she saw at the Nutcracker.

My 2-year old son "gooves" to KOB, when it starts. He digs the separation of instruments playing "Way Out West" Sonny Rollins.

Start them young in the home ....

Blame it on MTV.

As a long time teacher, I can tell you it's the same reason that many students don't know good literature (I'm not even talking about "great literature" here}. Many "Curriculum specialists" and "school of education professors" adhere to the philosophy that content is no longer that important--that a student can learn as much from reading a Hillary Duff type book as he/she can from "a better class of literature". The important thing "they" say is that the kids read--not what they read. I also see this in young teachers just entering the profession. Many of them are ignorant of the content that many of the people of my generation were taught. This includes all fields--science, math, social studies, etc. I am no high brow, but I am constantly amazed by what some of the younger teachers can't discuss even semi-intelligently. I know that I am more knowledgeable now than I was 30 years ago, but the difference I see was that I was at least interested in learning about my subject. Younger teachers seem to have been taught alot of methodology at the expense of content.