In my article titled “Music is Important in a Child’s Education” (12.07.2011), I addressed this issue and mentioned İpek Mutaf Böler’s book The Effects of Music in Child Development and Education.

I received an email signed by Güher Pekinel:

“I read your article published today with great interest and joy.

For years, within the rigidly structured music education system, we have been tirelessly putting in great effort for five years toward a new understanding of education. Finally, columnists are gradually drawing attention to this deficiency and emphasizing how important music education is in kindergartens and primary schools.

With this article, your expression of how a generation can be raised in a balanced way through education received at an early age is very important in terms of creating awareness in society. Unfortunately, for years no progress has been made in music education; on the contrary, with the rigid education system, it has gone as far as being glossed over, even ignored.

If you could continue writing such articles from time to time, we would be very grateful to you. Hopefully, the efforts made will bear fruit.”

One of the fundamental conditions of civilization is being a good listener—perhaps even playing an instrument.

In addition to the educational program they initiated four and a half years ago, Güher–Süher Pekinel are also carrying out useful and effective work on music education through other projects.

They always evaluate music within the integrity of culture.

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From Tuncel Gülsoy’s interview titled “A new jazz recording and a special concert from the Güher and Süher Pekinel sisters,” I have included particularly the sections related to music education in my article:

“As you know, in addition to the ‘Tevitöl’ project that we started four and a half years ago, we are also carrying out two more projects. In the first project, as we explained before, the music course has been integrated into the general curriculum and is graded like every other subject. Our goal is for this to be implemented in all schools, as it used to be.

Our second project, ‘Young Talents on World Stages,’ supports professional young musicians in working with the best musician-artists in Europe for their future careers, while also enabling them to prepare for international competitions with these teachers, thus opening the way to world stages and allowing them to present themselves on these platforms.

Our third project is to reintegrate music classes into the curriculum in kindergartens and primary schools through the system of the renowned pedagogue and composer Carl Orff. As is known, the ages between 5 and 9 are the most productive years during which children’s minds absorb like a sponge; during this period, the aim is to help them become self-confident individuals with broad visions by discovering their individual creativity, developing their expressive abilities, and benefiting from the holistic and powerful influence of music. This method is successfully applied in many countries around the world and yields excellent results. Indeed, the Finland school system, which has held first place for 12 years, has long implemented the Orff system. Our goal and desire is for it to be applied in all schools.”

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I have no doubt that with these positive efforts of Güher–Süher Pekinel toward music education, they will raise young talents or pave the way for their development.