Richard Gill: A New Memoir, A New Project
20 October 2012
Richard Gill, one of the country's leading advocates for music education and a well known conductor and educator, has been busy as usual.
Matthew Westwood (The Australian) reports that Gill has plans to establish an institute for training music teachers. "I have to convince government to accredit it, so we can train these teachers to go into schools and teach music," he told the Australian.
Recently Gill addressed the Kodaly Music Education Conference in Adelaide, discussing the National Curriculum and issues facing music education. He described the three monsters - the crowded curriculum, the burdens on teachers which take them away from teaching, and standardised testing.
Of the preoccupation with testing, reporting and benchmarking, Gill said: "Education is not a race. If it were a race who would you identify as your competitors? What are the rules of the race? Who sets the terms and conditions of the race? Who judges the results and on what basis? Who calls out the names of the winners and losers, publicly?"
The address also covered the curriculum, both the National Curriculum draft document itself ("unmitigated rubbish") and the current focus on curriculum. 'When I teach composition I don’t use a syllabus or a curriculum I use J.S.Bach. In short, we teach music from music, not curricula."
Read Richard Gill's address to the Kodaly Music Education Conference
Read the article in The Australian (19 October) in which Richard Gill discussed his career, future plans, and why nothing ever holds him back!
