Thursday, February 7, 2013

Blog 2: Julliard to Bring New York-Style Teaching to China


Blog 2: Julliard to Bring New York-Style Teaching to China

Julliard is going global: to expand to China.  Many American institutions such as Yale and NYU, are currently in the process of opening campuses in Asia in addition to Julliard’s expansion.  The news of Julliard’s expansion overseas began in June of 2011 but is closely underway.  Julliard is to be the first major Unites States preforming arts school to expand outside of America.  The plan is to open Asia’s Julliard in a city outside of Beijing; Yujiapu.  Apparently, the Julliard institute will not be exactly like its New York institute; it will be similar to Julliard’s age’s 8-18 pre-college division and university degrees will not be offered.  And similar to the pre-college division for children preparing for college, Yujiapu’s Julliard will obviously have a focus in music, but without the humanities and performance courses which are provided at the main campus in New York.  Asia’s goal is to have a better-rounded curriculum that integrates more of the arts.  Asia’s Julliard institute will be employing new teachers and staff for the campus, and will provide workshops and primary classes to be taught by New York’s faculty.   New York’s Julliard has established for itself a famous location within the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, and it is Asia’s hope that they may develop “a new and rich tradition” of their own, making Julliard’s development within Yujiapu something to be very proud of within the community.  Asia is excited that there will be an equal opportunity for all students to enter into the institute.  The demand for more arts within their educational curriculum must be responding well considering Asia’s government is funding a great deal of money into the arts program.  It seems as though Asia is on their way to having a better-rounded curriculum that includes the arts, and includes Julliard. 
I am excited for the city of Yujiapu to be getting a Julliard.  Though it will not offer the same courses or degrees as the main university, they are gaining so much more.  The demand for more arts to be integrated within education is not just something Asia is experiencing.  In America, we are fighting to hold onto our arts and humanities courses.  There are schools that are replacing these courses with standardized testing courses.  More music, drama, cooking, and creative writing classes (to name only a few), are being taken out of schools and are being replaced with required courses that help students prepare and study and practice for standardized  testing.  Teachers all over the nation are demanding to hold onto the arts.  These course s are not mindless, easy “A” courses.  They help keep education well-rounded and allow students to become well-rounded individuals who excel because they want to rather than because they are pressured to do well on some standardized test.  There needs to be less “teach for the test” and more “teach for the future”. 

Jessica Hanley
2/7/13 
5:32 p.m.



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