Culture

Free instruments for poor children

by Paul Conneally | June 15, 2008 at 02:58 pm

378 views | 17 Recommendations | 3 comments

At one time this was the norm in the UK - free music tuition and the use of an instrument with the county of Leicestershire leading the way. Sadly long gone under Thatcher and not reinstated by Blair or Brown. even where musical intsruments are provided even the poorest still have to pay for the tuition so mainly middle class and above children get the opportunity to learn the violin, flute, guitar, sax etc. This scheme has to be applauded but really the government should reintroduce the scheme for all across the country.

Children living on England's poorest estates will be provided with musical instruments and taught for free how to perform works by composers such as Bach and Beethoven.

They will then be encouraged to join full-scale orchestras as part of a government scheme, spearheaded by internationally renowned cellist Julian Lloyd Webber, that aims to tackle disaffection and boost aspiration.

Cellos, clarinets, trumpets and more will be given to children as young as four who have been recruited from the streets and clubs of deprived neighbourhoods, ministers will announce this week.

Music teachers, specially selected for their charisma, will then be brought in to teach the children how to play to orchestra standard. The aim is to emulate the success of a Venezuelan social programme that provided free classical music lessons to children living amid the drug addiction, crime and desperate poverty of the country's most violent slums.

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liamssoft

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 15:58 on June 15th, 2008

LotusFlower, I like this story. It's good stuff. Yes the poor get a raw deal, they pay most of their income in taxes but receive very little in return. .