|
Howard Goodall, England's National Ambassador for Singing
Sing Up: Bringing Song Back to a Nation (excerpts)
The key issue of all was that general primary teachers, classroom teachers, felt very uncomfortable about leading singing and mostly did not want to. The response that came back [when asked about singing] was seen through the prism of an adult’s version of singing, not a child’s version. The adults would say: "I can't sing.” "I don't sing in tune.” “I'm embarrassed.” "I'm shy.” “I don't want to do this.”
They were putting their fear, their worry about singing onto the children. Because if you’ve ever met a six- or seven-year-old child.. no six- or seven-year-old is scared of singing. They all want to sing, it’s completely natural. The children’s] attitude was that they wanted to sing, but the adults were getting in the way of that.
So ... what happens? When and how do we learn that it’s not okay to sing anymore?
|