| KIRK: | My name is Willis Kirk. I'm President Emeritus of City College of San Francisco, retiring just last January 14 (1990). |
| MURRAY: | Sounds like you know what's going on in education ... |
| KIRK: | For over 35 years, I've been in education and taught elementary, junior high, high school, and college, and I've been in administration for the last 20 years at City College. All during that time I've been a working musician when I could. I'm also a writer. I wrote two instructional books on music. This one is on Afro American rhythm patterns which is a method for teaching rhythms to kids. I was a consultant for the National Endowment of the Arts and did some traveling to Washington, D.C. On behalf of them. I've been involved in this music for many, many years, but this is the first time I've seen the legislature get involved in jazz. When I started teaching music, I taught at 5 schools. I'm originally from Indianapolis so I grew up with a host of good musicians. In the midwest, we had good music programs. One of the things I have always thought and still believe is that the acceptance of jazz from its early stages up to today has always been hindered by racism. I have no doubt that its still there. I don't have much to add to what's been said. The one point made repeatedly is that jazz education must start at an early age. I certainly do believe it after having been in education since 1956. I work with the Oakland Jazz Alliance which is trying to get jazz in the Oakland schools. After one of our high school presentations, we asked the students to raise their hands if they knew the type of music we were playing. Now the school has 1,800 students; less than half could raise their hands because most of them didn't know. So we have a real big job to do. I don't know how we go about it. These are high school kids at one of the best high schools in Oakland. These are kids who came up in upper middle class areas. Evidently their parents either didn't have the background or did not have it in school. So I wasn't surprised most of them did not know what we were playing. I then asked them if they had heard about the passing of Miles Davis (Miles Davis passed away on September 28, 1991). More hands than before went up. So we used that as a vehicle to explain what Miles Davis had done and what we were attempting to accomplish by bringing jazz into the schools. |
| MURRAY: | What's going on in the K through 12 schools? |
| KIRK: | Very little. In the 1950s, they had music for all the kids in every school. |
| MURRAY: | Jazz? |
| KIRK: | Yes. Well, when I say "jazz" I mean that the black teachers were well aware of jazz. We didn't say that we learned jazz at school, but we did because we had teachers who understood jazz. |
| MURRAY: | Of course we have black teachers today, but maybe we don't have the same level of music programs. |
| KIRK: | Not as much as we did. |
| MURRAY: | Are you familiar with California? |
| KIRK: | Yes. I've been here since 1968 when there was more music in elementary and junior high schools than there is now. |
| MURRAY: | So we not only have less jazz, but we have less music ... |
| KIRK: | Less music, less teachers. Definitely. After 35 years in education, this is the first time in my life that I don't have to depend on anything so I can be a working musician. This to me is marvelous. I can play what I want, when I want, and where I want. But, that's not the point. I am concerned that the preservation of jazz music continue, and I reiterate what's been said before that we must go back into the schools to do it. I'm really disappointed that over the years we have allowed the schools to slip in terms of music education. In Japan every child, grades 1-5, receives 2 hours a week of music instruction from a music specialist. Last year, I was in the Soviet Union with 21 educators. Everywhere we traveled there were Russian musicians in motels trying to play this thing called jazz. Even though language was a barrier, I somehow communicated to them that I was a jazz musician from San Francisco. They immediately went out to find someone who could interpret. The music is magic when it comes to our representation of it and its representation of us in various parts of the world. This music is ours; we've got to catch up with the rest of the world in appreciating it. Someone said you can't buy better school systems. That's a bunch of crap. You need the dollars to have the teachers, to have the curriculum, and to put jazz in schools. Until we re-dedicate ourselves to making the music live, we all fail. Music is not a frill to cut when the money is tight; it is an essential element of a person's total education. Thank you. |
| MURRAY: | Any questions? |
| CARRILLO: | I'm curious about the music educators we have today. Are there a good number of teachers who have jazz education or jazz experience that are now in the schools? |
| KIRK: | There are some, but they're not working. David Baker, who is a friend of mine, has probably turned out more musicians--the caliber musicians who should be in the schools--than any one I know. He has developed a curriculum of teaching jazz, and his students understand a lot more about jazz because they have studied it on a very structured basis. His teaching method is innovative. When I grew up it was thought that jazz couldn't be taught. That was the prevalent thought. Today, we know jazz can be instructed just like any other music. I think David is a forerunner in teaching structured jazz in the college setting. Does that answer your question? |
| CARRILLO: | Well... How much jazz education do music educators have who are teaching K through 12 students? |
| KIRK: | Not nearly enough. There are more teachers in colleges with jazz backgrounds than in elementary, junior high schools, and high schools. While there are more in high schools than there used to be and much more in colleges than there used to be, there are less in elementary schools. |
| CARRILLO: | You said, "jazz teachers are not working". Does that mean they are not working as music educators? |
| KIRK: | Yes. They work as best they can as musicians. |
| CARRILLO: | Outside of education? |
| KIRK: | Yes. |
| MURRAY: | Thank you very much, Mr. Kirk ... |
| MINICUCCI: | Just one more comment on what Mr. Kirk said. A study conducted a couple of years ago comparing Japanese schools with American schools found the biggest percentage difference in instructional time was not in mathematics--in fact that is the smallest difference between Japanese and American schools--but in the arts, particularly music. Every third and fourth grade student in japan has to take Suzuki and violin lessons. This study confirms Mr. Kirk's point that music receives a higher priority in Japan. |