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March 11, 2010

A Clockwork Orange Inspires Educrats

Posted by Van Helsing at March 11, 2010 10:48 AM

1984 isn't the only dystopian novel hyper-statist Britain is bringing to life. Remember in A Clockwork Orange, how the hooligan Alex was conditioned to be disgusted by the classical music he had always loved? Life imitates precautionary art yet again:

In January it was revealed that West Park School, in Derby in the midlands of England, was "subjecting" (its words) badly behaved children to Mozart and others. In "special detentions," the children are forced to endure two hours of classical music both as a relaxant (the headmaster claims it calms them down) and as a deterrent against future bad behavior…

One news report says some of the children who have endured this Mozart authoritarianism now find classical music unbearable. As one critical commentator said, they will probably "go into adulthood associating great music — the most bewitchingly lovely sounds on Earth — with a punitive slap on the chops." This is what passes for education in Britain today: teaching kids to think "Danger!" whenever they hear Mozart's Requiem or some other piece of musical genius.

Fortunately, there are limits to the power of association. Before discovering RadioIO Classical, I often resorted to public radio, yet the mealy-mouthed Caspar Milquetoast types murmuring moonbattery at the top of the hour never managed to drag the music down from its heights.

On a tip from Incitatus.