A classical music purist is going to hate this. A school in England is using Mozart's music to punish students who have misbehaved.
Students who are serving detentions are required to sit and listen to Mozart's concertos or symphonies as a form of punishment, and according to the school bad behavior has decreased by 60 per cent since they started this type of discipline.Now my last job was morning show producer at Classical 96.3FM here in Toronto and believe me listening to Mozart isn't a punishment. But there is a reason it might be.These students are 16 to 20 and the music they listen to on their iPods or CDs is generally hip-hop, urban, pop - the stuff you hear everyday.Now all this music has lyrics and the lyrics are about all the regular things. Getting it on, love lost or just the usual "I'm in love with the girl next door".But Mozart is instrumental. Yes I know he wrote opera's with words but that's not what they're using.These students are being subjected to music with no words, which means they are listening to music that actually requires them to concentrate on the subtleties of composition that doesn't "speak to them."The punishment isn't actually the music of Mozart it's being left alone with one's thoughts.Remember, kids today talk incessantly on cell phones, MSN chat lines, computer chat lines, YouTube and they text continuously. Their world is filled with "talking" and "chatter" and the music they listen to supports this.So putting them in a room with music with no words, whether its Mozart or Paul Muriat's Love is Blue, is pure torture.I mean if the composers were any good, he or she would have written words, right?Which brings me to my list of music that could also be used to correct bad conduct.How about Henry Mancini's instrumental version of Moon River, now that beats using a whip any day.How about the Brandenburg Concerto's? All six might be unduly harsh but one could be like a kick in the gut.How about Chopin? It's agony, which means it's probably in direct violation of the Geneva Convention.I'm also thinking Zamfir, master of the pan flute. That would definitely get students behaving better. I know it does me.You could also use Mahler, Liszt, Beethoven - the list is endless - and if it works on students maybe we should start playing this stuff in the prison system. God, by next year the Kingston penitentiary could be filled with people who are just misunderstood - hey, you never know.By the way, I think a CD of Mozart's music is probably cheaper.