Special children call for music education.
-Reflections on the case of Zhou Zhou.
In recent years, a name, Zhou Zhou, has frequently appeared in TV, newspapers and other media. Zhou Zhou, whose IQ is only 30, was born in 1978. My father is a cellist of Wuhan Symphony Orchestra, and my mother is an ordinary employee. Zhou Zhou attracts people's attention, which is amazing, because he is the first conductor with mental retardation in the world. He has worked with orchestras all over the world, including the National Symphony Orchestra, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the China Opera Ballet.
Early music education undoubtedly played an important role in the success of Zhou Zhou's life. As early as Zhou Zhou was three or four years old, his family began to cultivate his artistic talents such as music, painting and performance while gradually cultivating his self-care ability. These trainings laid a good foundation for the cultivation of his command ability. With the joint efforts of family and society, Zhou Zhou's musical potential has been well developed and his life path has been greatly improved. Because of his musical talent, Zhou Zhou is respected by everyone. He is no longer a burden to society, but a useful person to society. He is no longer a burden to the family, and can even add luster to the family. Music brought him endless happiness.
The successful example of music education in Zhou Zhou is thought-provoking. Zhou Zhou is a lucky man. He is mentally retarded, but he has correctly developed his musical potential. Special children like Zhou Zhou can easily become a forgotten corner in music education. Imagine what would happen to Zhou Zhou if he hadn't been influenced and educated by music from the beginning? ! Like many special children, he may feel inferior and have no self-confidence, and his musical potential may be buried forever, so his life is in trouble and his life is undoubtedly gloomy.
God has given me the ultimate useful talent. We should be convinced of this. Special children, even children who are not as good as normal children in some aspects, must have their merits. If we give up their education because of some of their disabilities, then our education must be an incomplete education. If music education is neglected in the education of special children, then this education is bound to be incomplete. Music education not only brings spiritual happiness to special children, helps them build up self-confidence and overcome inferiority, but also promotes the improvement of intelligence, which is very beneficial to cultivate their basic self-care ability. For those special children with musical potential, it will undoubtedly give them a new life and seek a way for their future development.
First, special children need special care in music education.
The so-called special children refer to children whose physical and mental development is quite different from that of ordinary children and beyond the normal range, or children whose physical and mental indicators closely related to education are abnormal or beyond the normal state (abnormal state). 1 As far as a specific special child is concerned, these indicators may be lower than the normal indicators, higher than the normal indicators, or there may be several indicators at the same time. The special children referred to in this paper refer to children with physical or psychological development defects, that is, blindness, deafness, amblyopia, hard of hearing, mental retardation, speech disorder, physical disability, infirmity and other defects. The education of special children in China generally refers to the education of children with defects in a narrow sense.
According to relevant statistics, at present, there are nearly 7.5 million school-age disabled children among special children in China, and less than 400,000 receive special education. By 2000, there were only 1539 special education schools in China. The rate of school-age disabled children receiving special education services is 4.53%. Obviously, the number of special children in China is huge, and the limited number of special education schools can't meet the needs, which leads to the low popularization rate of special education.
In the education of special children who have entered school, music education has not received due attention, which is mainly reflected in two aspects: first, the attention paid to music education in special schools is far lower than that in ordinary schools; Second, music education in ordinary primary and secondary schools has not given due attention to individual special children. In today's society, which emphasizes integrated education, more and more special children enter ordinary schools and receive education with normal children. However, a few special children in these ordinary schools are more likely to become the forgotten corner of our music education.
Jenny Willis, an American expert in special children's education, once wrote a book about a disabled little girl who was born with leg disease. From small to large, the adults around her treated her like other normal children, without overprotecting her. Not only do I play all kinds of "intense" games with her, but I also curse when I feel pain. As a result, Shanshan, like most children, loves to play, has various emotions and grows up mentally.
It can be seen from this case that what special children want and need most is not to be treated differently by us. They need us to treat them with a normal heart, not to sympathize with these "weak" children with physical and mental disabilities. Only in this way can they grow up normally and become normal adults.
Special children are children first, then special children. Like other children, they need the watering of love and the help of education. They need to grow up happily like ordinary children, bid farewell to inferiority complex and build self-confidence. No matter normal children or special children, when they grow up, they should go to the society and become a member of it. For disabled children, to become a qualified member, in addition to mastering the necessary basic knowledge and experience, they should also have a healthy and positive attitude to face life. Cultural education and skill learning can enable special children to master basic life skills, while music education can enable children to have a sound mind. Music education is a necessary way for special children to live a healthy life. Music education itself is a kind of love education, an emotional education and a happy education. Special children need music education to bring them spiritual comfort, love and care from music teachers, music to come into their lives and let them study happily. Music education is also an education to develop intelligence. Special children need music education to develop the right brain and promote other abilities.
Music education plays an irreplaceable role in the growth of special children, especially for special children. Many special children often have a strong desire for music. They need to use music to convey their thoughts and feelings, eliminate their fears and barriers to the world through music, and add some fun to their monotonous life. In music learning and music activities, special children fully experience the pleasure of beauty, gradually cultivate healthy aesthetic taste, overcome bad psychology, establish a sound personality, and then stay away from loneliness and enter the crowd.
Second, giving new life to special children is the sacred mission of music education.
First of all, from the object of music education, music education is for all students. "The era when art belongs to the nobility has long passed. Today, the art of music exists for everyone, which not only means that the society should undertake the obligation to provide every member with the opportunity to contact with the art of music, but also means that everyone has the right to benefit from the art of music. "As early as 1923, Karl Gerckens, the object of music education, put forward" Music for every child and every child for music ",which became the basic creed of American music education. The American National Standards for Art Education also stipulates: "All students, regardless of their background, talent or disability, have the right to enjoy art education and the rich content it provides. ..... Students who are incompetent in art are deprived of the benefits of art, which is often because they are rejected by the art education plan. ..... The view that art education is only aimed at a few "geniuses" and not at "ordinary students" and disabled students is an extremely harmful obstacle. The view that art has become the passive experience of most people, and most people who lack "real genius" are not qualified to paint, musical instruments, dance or drama is also purely misleading. Obviously, students' ability tendency and ability in various arts are different, but the difference does not mean that they are unqualified. "
Undoubtedly, the objects of music education include special children, who have the right to receive music education. For music education, if there are other special objects besides all students, then this special object should include not only musical gifted children, but also special children with music or physical and mental problems.
From the essence of music education, it is the sacred mission of music education to give new life to special children. The essence of music education is aesthetics, which cultivates people's aesthetic ability, constructs people's aesthetic psychological structure, awakens, connects and integrates the strength of personality, and achieves the cultivation of people's mind and personality. In music teaching, beauty exists not only in the music itself, but also in the teaching environment, teachers' language and manners, which are all manifestations of beauty. The whole teaching process of music education puts special children in a beautiful atmosphere, fully feels beauty, and enhances their ability to discover and express beauty in life. Among various art forms, music is regarded as the most emotional art. Music education can effectively enrich the spiritual life of special children and promote the healthy growth of perception, emotion and imagination. Through the experience of music, they can feel the music image of truth, goodness and beauty, which has a great influence on their emotional field invisibly. If special children can accept this noble emotional feeling for a long time, it will help them form a good character and quality, thus achieving the goal of cultivating people.
Some special children who have a strong desire for music often show a lack of self-confidence in music learning and music activities. If we can provide them with more opportunities to get in touch with music and let them really experience the joy of music, it will play a huge role in the mental growth of special children. Tolstoy once said that the power and performance of art touching people lies in liberating individuals from loneliness and combining individuals with others. Through music learning and music activities, music education allows special children to actively participate in and integrate into it, keep them away from loneliness and inferiority, and help them build up confidence in life. This is the sacred mission of music education. Music education is the best content of special education and the most beautiful and precious gift for special children.
It is reported that from June 5438 to February 2002, 15 autistic children aged 2 to 12 received music education in the music therapy room of Guangzhou Autism Training Center. After several months of music therapy, the effect is quite ideal. Xiao Jian, 12 years old, was afraid to touch the piano at first, but now he can not only imitate with the teacher, but sometimes he can play by himself. There are also some very quiet children who will take the initiative to say hello when they see their parents and teachers. Banna from Cameroon is a music teacher in the training center. She loves the piano and believes that music is a panacea. She uses her musical talent and clinical treatment experience to train and treat autistic children. Banner said: "Language is hard to be recognized by autistic children, but music can." Coincidentally, 29-year-old Tony de Breu was born with mental retardation. When his mother gave birth to him, he weighed only 1 kg and was blind. The doctor advised him to "die", but his mother gave him early music education with amazing perseverance. Tony showed a rare talent for music. After hard work and training, he finally became the best jazz pianist in Boston, USA. Music education opened a new life for Tony.
From the perspective of brain physiology, music education also has a far-reaching impact on the intellectual enlightenment of special children.
Brain physiology believes that the two hemispheres of the human brain have a basic division of labor. The left hemisphere is mainly responsible for abstract thinking, commonly known as "digital brain", while the right hemisphere is mainly responsible for image thinking, commonly known as "artistic brain". Music education can make people's right brain excited, improve the long-term inhibition of the right brain caused by the imbalance between the left and right brains, increase the excitability of the cerebral cortex, and correspondingly improve its ability of conduction and storage, so that the advantages of the two hemispheres of the brain can be fully coordinated and brought into play, thus improving the working efficiency of the left brain. three
Therefore, the implementation of music education for special children can develop their right brain, promote the development of intelligence, make them accept certain knowledge and experience more quickly and accurately, and better master the necessary living ability, thus providing preconditions for them to lead a normal life like normal children.
Music education not only cultivates the rich aesthetic taste of special children, but also gives them infinite care and love, helps them get rid of their inferiority complex and enhances their confidence in life. It also inspires their intelligence to a certain extent and helps them master the necessary life experience and ability. Music education endows special children with new life, which is the sacred mission of music education.
In today's society where human beings can't fundamentally control disability, there are always 65,438+00% people who can't escape the strange circle of disability sooner or later. It has become the basic consensus of modern civilized society that gifted disabled people have equal rights to participate in social life, and music education is an effective way for special children to enjoy equal human rights. In today's China, there are still many problems in popularizing education for disabled children. In view of the lack of attention to music education for special children, I think the following problems need to be solved urgently:
First, popularizing special education is the premise of implementing special music education. Only by rapidly increasing the enrollment rate of special children can we ensure the implementation of special music education. To popularize special education, we must first change the concept and understanding of Chinese people. Special children are also the flowers of the motherland, and there should be no difference in educational opportunities. Special education is one of the important symbols to measure the level of politics, education, culture, economy, science and technology, medical care and welfare of a country and society. It is the window of a country and its civilization, and it is not dispensable or alms. The second is to strengthen law enforcement management. From the Constitution to the Compulsory Education Law and the Regulations on Education for the Disabled, there are concerns and specific requirements for special children's education, but the current situation of special children's education shows that we have not done enough in this regard.
Second, strengthen the position of music education in special education. To change the situation that music education has been neglected for a long time in special education, we must first improve the status of music education in the whole education; Secondly, improve people's understanding of music education for special children, clarify the value of music education for special children, set clear teaching objectives, increase the training of music special education teachers, straighten out the employment system of special education teachers and students, and improve the teaching quality of existing special music education.
Thirdly, we should pay more attention to special children in general music education. With the further implementation of integrated education, general music education is aimed at all kinds of children, including normal children and special children. Therefore, it is necessary to add the goal of special children's music education to the goal of integrated music education. Only in this way can special children get the attention they deserve in general music education, so that they can make up for their own shortcomings in the integrated educational environment, shorten the gap with normal children and create conditions for their gradual return to the mainstream society.