When students and parents are asked to rate subjects according to their importance, the arts are unavoidably at the bottom of the list. Music is nice, people seem to say, but not important. Too often it is viewed as entertainment, but certainly not an education priority (优先).This view is shortsighted. In fact, music education is beneficial and important for all students.

Music tells us who we are, because music is an expression of the beings who create it, it reflects their thinking and value, as well as the social environment it came from. Rock music represents a lifestyle just as surely as does a Schubert song.The jazz influence that George Gershwin and other musicians introduced into their music is obviously American because it came from American musical traditions.Music expresses our character and values.It gives us identity as a society.

Music provides a kind of perception (感知) that cannot be acquired any other way.Science can explain how the sunrises and sets.The arts explore the emotive (情感的) meaning of the same phenomenon.We need every possible way to discover and respond to our world for one simple but powerful reason: No one way can get it all.

The arts are forms of thought as powerful in what they communicate as mathematical and scientific symbols.They are ways we human beings “talk” to each other.They are the language of civilization through which we express our fears, our curiosities, our hungers, our discoveries, our hopes. The arts are ways we give form to our ideas and imagination so that they can be shared with others.When we do not give children access to an important way of expressing themselves such as music, we take away from them the meanings that music expresses.

Science and technology do not tell us what is means to be human.The arts do.Music is an important way we express human suffering, celebration, the meaning and value of peace and love. So music education is far more necessary than people seem to realize.

Expressions of honour and respect have been shared for Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot, who passed away on May 1, 2023 at the age of 84.

Lightfoot was born on November 17, 1938, in Orillia, Ontario. He made his performing debut (初次登台) at age five singing in a choir (唱诗班). He claimed that it was the choirmaster who taught him how to enjoy and sing great music. He took piano and voice lessons and began winning amateur singing competitions. Just before he turned 13, Lightfoot performed on stage at Massey Hall in Toronto as one of the winners of the Kiwanis Music Festival.

As a teenager, Lightfoot continued to study the piano and taught himself how to play drums. He soon became a paid musician, travelling throughout Canada and playing with different bands. Lightfoot played numerous styles of music and began writing songs about Canadian nature and history.

While he still enjoyed performing, by 1964 Lightfoot began gaining recognition as a songwriter, and other musicians started recording his songs. One of the most famous musicians to play his music was Elvis Presley.

He continued to write, perform and record his songs as he grew older. In 1975, Lightfoot wrote and recorded one of his most famous songs, about a real shipping disaster occuring in the Great Lakes, called “The Wreck of the Edmund Fizgerald”. This song is still played and is one of the most famous Canadian songs ever recorded.

Lightfoot won many awards for his 20 original albums(专辑). He was awarded 16 Juno Awards, Canada’s top prize for music. In’ 1986 Lightfoot was given a spot in the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. He also received a

Governor General’s Performing Arts Award in 1997. In Ontario, he was awarded the highest provincial prize, becoming a member of the Order of Ontario.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described him as one of the greatest singer-songwriters. “Gordon Lightfoot captured our country’s spirit in his music, and in doing so, he helped shape Canada’s soundscape,” he said on Twitter. “May his music continue to inspire future generations, and may his spirit live on forever.”

The late, great producer Phil Ramone worked with many famous popular singers. However, one of his albums is a little different. It’s classical music, made for children.

“He actually started as a child violinist,” said Marc Neikrug, a famous classical composer who worked together with Ramone on the album, “Sunken Cathedrals,” after being introduced by Rock Positano, a doctor with a special interest in music’s value to medicine. “The three of us all want to promote classical music to children.”

In the digital age when children develop surrounded by constant distractions, however, Neikrug sees a very particular value in classical music. “I’m concerned about a world in which there is an almost aggressive move to lower people’s attention spans,” he said. “‘That’s terrifying. How do you even absorb and learn things? How do you expect kids to do well in school?”

“I think it’s really important to let kids build some kind of ability to focus,” Neikrug said. “Great music can do that, because you’re drawn into what you’re listening to.” A two-or three-minute music may not seem so long to concentrate on, but it’s a good attention span for kids,” he said. “We picked the pieces very deliberately to be not too long.”

All of the pieces on the two-part album are unadapted, complete works of classical music. “Phil, Dr. Rock and I were all completely convinced that we need little, short; beautiful pieces for kids. They happen to be really good for adults too,” he pointed out, though the words “Classics for Kids” on the cover might scare some grown people off. This doesn’t mean you should throw all of your popular music albums away or trash all the screen devices in your home. “I’m not an advocate for disregarding the reality of living in this world,” Neikrug said. “I would say someone who grows up able to focus for an hour and equally able to use the smartphone with one hand, is fine.”