Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Go away, Professor Baker

A British academic tries to take on Venezuela's system.

Baker's silly book cover.
Baker's silly book cover.

A book just came out on November 28 which thinks it’s going to expose Venezuela’s El Sistema as a tyrannical and corrupt petty kingdom. The author published an article about his findings in The Guardian.

Geoffrey Baker, is an academic in the music department of London’s Royal Hathaway University and thinks El Sistema needs to be critically assessed and exposed by someone not from Venezuela. Wait — maybe he just needs an uncreative idea for a book?

Sponsored
Sponsored

Why have I emphasized Baker being an academic? Because academics, by their very nature, do not create anything. Jose Antonio Abrue, the founder of El Sistema is not an academic. If he had been then there would be no El Sistema.

Geoffrey Baker has gone to Venezuela and found the people who are disgruntled with a musical system that has close to 1 million children.

With that many people involved there is always going to be stories of abuse of authority and there will be varying degrees of corruption in any organization. What I found distressing were some of the underlying prejudices in the Guardian article.

Baker brings up the idea that El Sistema’s motto of “To play and to struggle” has been transformed at the highest levels and that it should now read “To play and get paid”. So musicians performing at a world class level should not be paid?

I’m being paid to write this. I’m assuming Mr. Baker has been paid to write his book. I’m also guessing Mr. Baker gets paid to be an academic. Where’s the issue? People should be paid for what they do.

Money is supposed to represent time, effort, and ability. Music should be something the Venezuelans do for free?

Later Baker asserts that El Sistema is based on a 19th Century paradigm of musical education which involves mere repetition instead of critical thinking and creativity. I’m about to lose my head here. How else does anyone learn a musical instrument except by endless hours of practice and repetition?

Critical thinking and creativity do not enter into mastering an instrument. For the love of God how can anyone criticize a music system that focuses on practice?

We admire athletes for the excellence of their performance and brag about the hours they spent repeating an activity so that they can excel at the highest levels.

Anyone wanting to be a good basketball player needs to shoot 300-500 shots, with correct form, everyday. The exception being seven-footers named Shaquille O’Neal. No one criticized Pete Maravich for spending hours and hours bouncing a basketball. In fact, we admire him for it, and young players are taught his ball-handling drills.

Baker goes on to bring up the insidious use of music:

“Its roots go back further still to the Spanish conquest of the Americas, when missionaries used education in European music as a means of converting and ‘civilising’ the indigenous population. These precursors were programs of social control, not emancipation.”

Let’s get one thing straight here. The indigenous peoples of the Americas were practicing some undeniably brutal and inhuman activities. “Civilising” the indigenous people was a real thing. To now condemn both the past and the present use of music in South America as creating social control is as self-righteous as it gets.

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Our riparian woodland begins to look like fall, Orb Weavers help decorate

Comet of the century?
Baker's silly book cover.
Baker's silly book cover.

A book just came out on November 28 which thinks it’s going to expose Venezuela’s El Sistema as a tyrannical and corrupt petty kingdom. The author published an article about his findings in The Guardian.

Geoffrey Baker, is an academic in the music department of London’s Royal Hathaway University and thinks El Sistema needs to be critically assessed and exposed by someone not from Venezuela. Wait — maybe he just needs an uncreative idea for a book?

Sponsored
Sponsored

Why have I emphasized Baker being an academic? Because academics, by their very nature, do not create anything. Jose Antonio Abrue, the founder of El Sistema is not an academic. If he had been then there would be no El Sistema.

Geoffrey Baker has gone to Venezuela and found the people who are disgruntled with a musical system that has close to 1 million children.

With that many people involved there is always going to be stories of abuse of authority and there will be varying degrees of corruption in any organization. What I found distressing were some of the underlying prejudices in the Guardian article.

Baker brings up the idea that El Sistema’s motto of “To play and to struggle” has been transformed at the highest levels and that it should now read “To play and get paid”. So musicians performing at a world class level should not be paid?

I’m being paid to write this. I’m assuming Mr. Baker has been paid to write his book. I’m also guessing Mr. Baker gets paid to be an academic. Where’s the issue? People should be paid for what they do.

Money is supposed to represent time, effort, and ability. Music should be something the Venezuelans do for free?

Later Baker asserts that El Sistema is based on a 19th Century paradigm of musical education which involves mere repetition instead of critical thinking and creativity. I’m about to lose my head here. How else does anyone learn a musical instrument except by endless hours of practice and repetition?

Critical thinking and creativity do not enter into mastering an instrument. For the love of God how can anyone criticize a music system that focuses on practice?

We admire athletes for the excellence of their performance and brag about the hours they spent repeating an activity so that they can excel at the highest levels.

Anyone wanting to be a good basketball player needs to shoot 300-500 shots, with correct form, everyday. The exception being seven-footers named Shaquille O’Neal. No one criticized Pete Maravich for spending hours and hours bouncing a basketball. In fact, we admire him for it, and young players are taught his ball-handling drills.

Baker goes on to bring up the insidious use of music:

“Its roots go back further still to the Spanish conquest of the Americas, when missionaries used education in European music as a means of converting and ‘civilising’ the indigenous population. These precursors were programs of social control, not emancipation.”

Let’s get one thing straight here. The indigenous peoples of the Americas were practicing some undeniably brutal and inhuman activities. “Civilising” the indigenous people was a real thing. To now condemn both the past and the present use of music in South America as creating social control is as self-righteous as it gets.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Kaylee Daugherty, Pinback, Chorduroy, Moondaddy, and Mr. Tube & the Flying Objects

Solos, duos, and full bands in Mira Mesa, Del Mar, City Heights, Little Italy, East Village
Next Article

Quill & Arrow Law is Saving Drivers Around California with Lemon Law

Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader