Appropriate Age for Fletcher

zacxpacx · Post by **zacxpacx** » Sun Feb 24, 2013 7:42 pm

I know We Hear and Play can only be successfully completed by children under the age of 5, and in some cases it has been completed by children slightly above the age of 5.

Is there any age restriction for successfully completing the Fletcher curriculum? Will an adult be able to glean as much from the method as a child aged 5?

At one point, she writes: "It seems, indeed, that music, like poetry, may be a primal talent; that, as all children are born poets, they may also be born musicians and also, very similarly, that as 99% of humanity lose all poetic faculty during the years of early childhood because of the artificial conditions of modern child life, so the very large majority of children lose their native musical ability through lack of training of the ear and mind during their most susceptible period."

Post by **aruffo** » Mon Feb 25, 2013 3:26 am

I received this note the other month:

Nellie Cornish at Cornish College of the Arts studied with Evelyn Fletcher-Copp and went on to teach her method in Seattle. Indeed, the method was central to the philosophy of teaching at the Cornish School for years afterwards.

I didn't follow it up, but it seems the most likely place for information about the Fletcher method's effectiveness.

WildcatShred · Post by **WildcatShred** » Sun Mar 24, 2013 12:29 am

For what it's worth...

A doctor friend of mine took a speed reading course at Murray College decades ago.

According to him, what he got from it was the greatest gift he has ever received. I'm not sure what your reading is like Chris (I'm not you) but this guy definitely experienced a change in his learning. He was a slow reader and average student...but became a neurosurgeon and attributes his getting through med school to the new way of reading he learned.

I don't know how relevant this is...but interesting nonetheless.

Post by **aruffo** » Wed Mar 27, 2013 11:05 am

That's interesting to know..!

As far as I can tell it's about "chunking"-- how much information you apprehend at once.

Axeman · Post by **Axeman** » Wed Mar 27, 2013 10:18 pm

Wild cat
Your friend must have done a better speed reading course than I did. I am only a teacher. lol

zacxpacx · Post by **zacxpacx** » Wed Mar 27, 2013 10:38 pm

Axeman, jokes aside, were you able to learn to absorb more information from text more quickly? Just curious...

Axeman · Post by **Axeman** » Thu Mar 28, 2013 4:23 am

Yes to a certain limit.
I did a short 3 week course at uni and was able to read faster but not to the levels and speeds that were promised. I tend to be faster when I am highly focussed and also on a time deadline. The course was based on Evelyn Wood's ideas. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evelyn_Wood_(teacher)
We did a lot of 'practice' reading which meant pushing the eye along the page using your finger to avoid re-reading and internal sub-vocalizing. Also we experimented with using different tracks with the pointer like fiure of eight patterns and two or three lines at a time as well as 's' type movements down the page.