Time is short today. I have spent the morning doing laundry that has been sitting in the hamper for far too long while working on my syllabus. I�ve tried organizing the course in several different ways, hoping beyond hope that I can come up with something that isn�t totally chronological that works. But chances are I will end up doing it chronologically, mostly, because it�s easier for the students to figure most of it out that way. Still, there are other things I want to say and other ways I want to say them.

The big annoyance of the morning is that I can�t seem to devise a way to structure the course either topically or chronologically without spending more time on program music than I want to. I really don�t want to spend a whole class discussing the Symphonie Fantastique, but every single textbook I�ve looked at seems to think that this particular piece is the greatest musical work ever written in the history of the world. If I thought that were true, I would probably be in a different line of work.

On the other hand, if it were up to me, I�d be teaching 4 weeks of Medieval and Renaissance, 4 weeks of 20th century and beyond and 2 weeks for everything else. Not exactly fair and balanced coverage. Of course, how I organize my syllabus doesn�t really matter, as long as it covers the material in some kind of intelligent way and as long as it is set up in such a way that I can follow it and so can my students. Still, the process of syllabus writing always forces you to confront one's philosophy of teaching. What do I think my students should know about classical music? And what do I think are the best ways to get that information across? Fortunately, they are questions I find interesting to ponder every now and again.

AJ has been pondering classical music too. He has recently become somewhat obsessed with a book/cartridge for the ubiquitous �leap pad,� one of those commercial ventures that receives the dubious label of �edutainment.� I have refused to purchase one on the principal that actual books are better in most situations, but our local library allows us to check out both the machines and assorted book/cartridge sets (sold separately, naturally) so we�ve been trying a few out. AJ is particularly taken with one devoted to classical music and entitled, "Hit it, Maestro!" I�m starting to think I should had these toys out to my class, because AJ�s been running around making requests like, �Mommy, can we listen to Gustav Holst�s �Mars, Bringer of War?� You know, from �The Planets�?� This is a marked improvement over his incessant desire to sing "Elmo's song," which is the tune of "Jingle Bells" sung with a single word -- any word, it seems -- as its sole text. The classical music leap pad book/cartridge is also furthering his already key interest in identifying musical instruments in recordings. We play games in the car where he tries to guess who�s playing and I try to find examples to fool him. He particularly likes wa-wa mutes and assorted electric guitar shenanigans. One of these days I�m going to have to introduce him to Laurie Anderson and her vocoder. But next on our list is Var�se's Am�riques. I think he'll like the sirens.

0 people said it like they meant it