somethings missing

 It seems that another round of status quo celebration on NMB this time about music ed. as composition is part of the national k-12 curriculum.   I've talked about this before.  

1. We have fewer music students and fewer music jobs. 
2. Artists in residence can bring publicity and some short term benefit to music programs but cannot sustain them.
3. We have no time to teach composition as other subjects take precedence.
4. Disconnect between what is taught in music ed. and what actually happens in schools.
5. Thousands of Music ed. folks feel they are composers and completely qualified to teach this subject as they like.
6. The strong possibility that classroom teachers, that is folks with limited or no music training, will teach music classes.
7. The national standards have no teeth, in Minnesota the teacher (music specialist or not) decides how a standard is to be interpreted. 
8. In education the teacher who is most important has the fewest students.  Result: education policy is created top down by those with the least recent, or no, experience.
9. Did I mention room space and equipment and funds?
10. NCLB is killing music programs.
11. States (Mass.) are moving away from their own State Education licensing authority and mandates and outsourcing to national"entrepreneurs."   Essentially cutting the education schools out of teacher creation.  
12. Today education policy is created by politicians, not by educators. Educators are merely left holding the bag. 
13. The erroneous proposition that What works in private and lab  schools will necessarily work in public schools.  
14. Billionaires (some college drop outs) with an axe to grind are buying their way into education policy.      

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http://www.newmusicbox.org/articles/bricks-and-mortar/ 


Phil Fried says:

May 7, 2012 at 1:52 pm

For me words can fail to describe the intrinsic nature of music. For example my 2nd symphony is based on long and short durations. Not very descriptive is it? Generic? Sure, and there are many different ways to approach this.
Then again what is crucial is the composition itself.