El Sistema takes poor children & teaches them music, for those in need of a positive post.

[Bushknew]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRd6_25GACg

He was in a music program, which is a Venezuelan innovation. It is called El Sistema, the system, and it takes children - a quarter of a million children - almost all from poor neighborhoods, and teaches them how to play instruments.

This has led to hundreds of youth orchestras sprouting up all over the country.
But El Sistema is less a music program than a profound social movement that takes kids off the streets, takes them away from crime and drugs and despair.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/02/17/60minutes/main3841251_page3.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentBody

[justinaforjustice]

1. Music Can Rescue Teenage Lives.

As a public defender in juvenile court, I was struck by two facts about my many young clients. The first was that approximately 80% of juvenile offenders seemed to have learning disability problems which prevented their success in school. The second was that the kids who managed to disappear from the court system seemed to be those who found a passion of some kind.

For many, the saving passion was music. Mother's would tell me that their kids had turned around when they formed a band or became heavily involved with a martial arts or sports program.

For many delinquent kids, the answer to their behavior is not putting them in a maximum security youth home or demanding community service work picking up trash, but giving them music lessons or getting them involved in sports. Ironically, many school systems do just the opposite. Schools are cutting out music and art programs and requiring that students maintain a "C" average to play sports.

Many kids try to succeed at crime because they have failed in school. Venezuela, where I am now living, has a tremendous national program for literacy and to involve youth in music and sports activities. In this respect, they are way ahead of the U.S.

[Bushknew]

2. There should be more * interaction * & vocational training for kids instead ...

memorization & debt is the reality.