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.