Edith Lantos Memorial Concert, Sunday January 24th, 2010
Speech given by Gilbert de Greeve
Ladies and Gentlemen,In 1965, Zoltán Kodály received an Honorary Doctorate at the University of Toronto. A few days later during a Question-Answer Session at the Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, a participant asked him: Dr. Kodály, would you tell us something about the special singing schools in Hungary? Kodály answered him: do you call “singing schools” those schools in which the children have daily singing lessons? The participant confirmed it. Kodály continued: But they are entirely average schools. They must teach every subject that the ordinary schools have. Music in those schools is a plus. They are obliged to be on an equal level with the other primary schools. But they have this curious experience that they achieve better results in almost every subject — so that our psychologists are beginning to study what may be the reason for that. I have said we want more psychologists. We can tell them what is happening. Daily music-making stirs up the mind and makes it sensitive to everything else. And that is the best argument for such schools. We cannot multiply them quickly enough; it is first a question of building good teachers. And from the State’s point of view it is a question of money. But it will come— It will slowly come. I tell you we will not be quiet until we have, instead of 103 such schools, 1003 — and even more, because we feel that music belongs to general education as well as mathematics and everything else. And so if music has the time that it deserves in general education, everything else will be better. (End of quote).
One of the best comments that I ever heard about different methodologies is: “a teacher must teach children, not a methodology”. The label is not important; the content is. And perhaps the most important is the personality of the teacher. Such a great personality was Edith Lantos who during her whole life made everything better for the children, so that they could grow up not only as intelligent but also as wise people. She understood the essence of Kodály’s vision, which is very simple: quality materials, quality teacher training and frequency. It is precisely that particular simple and unique aspect of the Kodály concept that makes it so universal. It is closer to a concept than to a methodology and the core of its approach is to make children musically literate in the best possible way, because for children only the very best is just good enough.
Edith was one of these persons that can be succeeded but never replaced. She was a Master Teacher who left an impact on everybody with whom she met. And above everything she will always be remembered as the good, kind and beautiful human being that she was.
~ Gilbert De Greeve
