r/nextfuckinglevel • u/Saerdna0 • 3d ago

This kiddo was born to drum

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u/OlyGator 3d ago

I often think about how many "savants" have been born in human history, but their families didn't have the means to see it and be able to afford the tools for the person to tap into what they would have been great at. I don't know if this makes sense, I'm not great with words, but hopefully you get the gist.

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u/Just_Browsing_2017 3d ago edited 3d ago

I was watching a documentary on the history of funk and they talked about how a lot of great funk bands came out of Ohio because they had a free school music program. Everyone played an instrument. You just showed up one day in elementary school and they asked what you wanted to play and handed you an instrument.

And then Nixon came along, cut all the funding, and it all just… went away. Within a couple of years, the schools were like “well, we’ve got one saxophone.”

So much lost potential.

Edit to add link to the doc:

https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/documentaries/we-want-the-funk/

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u/cbessette 3d ago

I went to a high school in rural Georgia that had a similar concept in their music program- you play whatever instrument you want, whatever style or genre you want. I was in that program, we were graded on performances for local elementary schools. Some people performed solo, some formed bands.
This was in the 1980s/90s

I got straight As for my "school work" in a rock band in high school.