Originally Posted
by The Orffsite Webmaster on Friday, July 16, 2010
The Orff Approach is like teaching a kid to
swim. You don't first sit them down with a book and tell them to read it and
learn the terminology. With Orff, you put the kid in the water first. You have
the whole process of swimming broken down into elemental pieces and start with
the easiest and build on it until the kid is swimming. They learn to hold their
breath and make bubbles in the water. Learning is a game. They play "pick
up the stick on the bottom of the pool" and other games that teach them
how to move underwater. Eventually, they're holding on to the edge of the pool
and kicking their legs like crazy. They've learned to float and move their arms
in some sort of a stroke. Before you know it they're swimming the width, then
the length of the pool and have never read a book on swimming.
Unfortunately, some music teachers spend time having them read
the manual and learn music facts, then toss them into the water. The gifted
ones somehow figure it out but the average student ends up on the bottom of the
pool vowing never to get near the water again.
My parable is over.
