Special children call for music education
-Reflections triggered by the case of Zhou Zhou
In recent years, a name-Zhou Zhou has appeared frequently in TV, newspapers and other media. Zhou Zhou, with an IQ of only 3, was born in Wuhan in 1978. His father was a cellist of the Wuhan Symphony Orchestra and his mother was an ordinary employee. Zhou Zhou attracts people's attention and is amazing because he is the first retarded conductor in the world at present. He has worked with orchestras all over the world, including the National Symphony Orchestra of the United States, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra of the United States and the China Opera Ballet Orchestra.
Early music education undoubtedly played an important role in Zhouzhou's success in life. As early as when Zhou Zhou was 3 or 4 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. After a long and arduous journey, with the concerted efforts of family and society, Zhou Zhou's musical potential has been well developed and his life path has been greatly improved. Zhou Zhou is respected by everyone because of his musical talent. 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 case of music education in Zhou Zhou is thought-provoking. Zhouzhou is a lucky man who is mentally retarded and develops his musical potential correctly. Special children like Zhou Zhou can easily become a forgotten corner of music education. Imagine what would happen to Zhou Zhou if he had never 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.
I was born to be useful. We should be convinced of this. Special children, even those who are inferior to normal children in some respects, must have their merits. If we give up their education because of some of their disabilities, then our education must be a kind of 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.
1. 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 refer to children whose physical and mental indicators closely related to education are abnormal or abnormal. As far as a specific special child is concerned, these indicators may be lower than the normal indicators, higher than the normal indicators, and may also have 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, blind, deaf, amblyopia, hard of hearing, mental retardation, speech disorder, limb 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 statistics, at present, there are nearly 7.5 million school-age disabled children among special children in China, while less than 4, people receive special education. By 2, there were only 1,539 special education schools in China. The rate of school-age disabled children receiving special education services is 4.53%. Obviously, there are a large number of special children in our country, and a limited number of special education schools obviously can't meet the needs, thus resulting in 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 from enough; Second, the 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 very small number of special children in these ordinary schools are more likely to become forgotten corners 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. Since childhood, adults around her treated her like other normal children, without overprotecting her. She not only played all kinds of "intense" games with her, but also hurt when she needed it, and scolded when she needed it. As a result, Shanshan, like most children, loved to play, had various emotions and grew up mentally healthy.
From this case, we can see 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 physically and mentally handicapped children with "weakness". Only in this way can they have a chance to grow up normally and become normal adults.
Special children are children first, and then special children. Like other children, they need the watering of love and the help of education. They need to grow up as happily as ordinary children, and they need to bid farewell to their inferiority complex and build up their self-confidence. Whether normal children or special children, when they grow up, they should go to society and become a member of society. For disabled children, in order to become a qualified member, in addition to mastering the necessary basic knowledge and experience, they should 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 heart. Music education is a necessary way for special children to lead 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, and music to enter their lives so that they can learn happily. Music education is also a kind of education to develop intelligence. Special children need music education to develop their right brain and promote their ability in other aspects.
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, to eliminate their fears and barriers to the world through music, and to 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, music art exists for everyone, which not only means that society should undertake the obligation to provide every member with the opportunity to contact music art, but also means that everyone has the right to benefit from music art." As early as 1923, Karl Gerckens, a leading figure in music education, put forward "Music for every child, every child for music", which became the basic creed of American music education. The American National Standards for Art Education also states: "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 caused by their being rejected by art education programs. ..... The idea that art education is only for a few "geniuses" and not for "ordinary students" and disabled students is an extremely harmful obstacle. The idea that art is reduced to the passive experience of most people and most people who lack "real genius" are not qualified for painting, musical instruments, dancing or drama is also purely misleading. Obviously, students have differences in ability tendency and ability in various arts, but differences do not mean that they are not qualified. "
There is no doubt that 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 aesthetic, 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 lies not only in the music itself, but also in the teaching environment, teachers' language, manners and so on, all of which are the embodiment of beauty. The whole teaching process of music education puts special children in an atmosphere of beauty, fully feels beauty, and enhances the ability of special children to discover beauty and express beauty in life. Among the various forms of art, music is known 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 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, so that they can truly experience the joy of feeling music, then 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 solitude and loneliness, and in combining individuals with others. Music education allows special children to actively participate in and integrate into it through music learning and music activities, so that they can stay 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 in December 22, 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, a 12-year-old, was afraid to touch the piano at first, but now he can not only imitate with the teacher, but also perform by himself sometimes. There are also some particularly 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. Banna said: "Language is difficult to be recognized by autistic children, but music can." Coincidentally, Tony de Breu, 29, was born with mental retardation. His mother weighed only 1 pound and was blind when she gave birth to him. The doctor advised him to "die", but his mother gave him an 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 up a brand-new life for Tony.
From the perspective of brain physiology science, music education also has a far-reaching impact on the intellectual enlightenment of special children.
According to brain physiology science, 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", and 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 state of the right brain caused by the imbalance between the left and right brains, increase the excitability of the cerebral cortex, and improve its ability of conduction and storage accordingly, so that the advantages of the two hemispheres of the brain can be fully coordinated and exerted, thus improving the working efficiency of the left brain. 3
Therefore, the implementation of music education for special children can develop their right brain, promote the development of intelligence, enable them to accept certain knowledge and experience more quickly and accurately, and better master the necessary life ability, thus providing preconditions for them to live 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, enhances their confidence in life, and inspires their intelligence to a certain extent, helping them master the necessary life experience and ability. Music education endows special children with a 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 1% people who can't escape the cycle of disability sooner or later. The human right of the gifted disabled to participate in social life on an equal footing has become the basic knowledge of modern civilized society, and music education is an effective way for special children to enjoy equal human rights. At present, there are still many problems in popularizing education for disabled children in China. In view of the fact that music education for special children is not paid attention to, I think there are the following problems 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 the implementation of special music education be guaranteed. 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 the opportunities for education. Special education is one of the important symbols to measure the level of politics, education, culture, economy, science and technology, health care and welfare of a country and society, and it is the window of the country and its civilization, not dispensable or charity. The second is to strengthen law enforcement and management. From the Constitution to the Compulsory Education Law and the Regulations on Education for the Disabled, there are all 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 long-neglected position of music education in special education, firstly, we should improve the position of music education in the whole education, and secondly, we should improve people's music teaching for special children.