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music education

Upcoming Society of Music Teacher Education Symposium

I’m looking forward to attending the Society of Music Teacher Education symposium later this week. A look through the program shows that it is going to be full of interesting papers and presentations. Janet Barret and I will be presenting our position paper “Counterpoint or Remix? A Dialogue on Popular Music and Popular Culture in the Music Teacher Education Curriculum.” Here’s the abstract: “Music education has professed the importance of including popular music in the curriculum for decades. Well-articulated rationales… Read More »Upcoming Society of Music Teacher Education Symposium

Hip Hop In the Music Classroom? Discussing Rap & Misogyny

One reason why many music educators are hesitant to integrate rap music in the classroom or even discuss it, is the misogyny present through much of the commercial rap music and videos that the general public and many students are familiar with. The difficulty in navigating through the complexity of this and other issues leads to many music educators avoiding the topic all together. On September 25th of 2007 Congress will be holding a hearing focusing on media and “”stereotypes… Read More »Hip Hop In the Music Classroom? Discussing Rap & Misogyny

Reluctant composers & Sparking student creativity

Anytime I hear about a music class, whether in K-12 schools or the university level, that makes use of improvisation and composition I get excited. I was happy to read Scott Spiegelberg’s recent post “Teaching Creativity” (via his excellent “Musical Perceptions” blog). At the end of his post he asks the following question regarding students who are “scared or reluctant” about a composition project: “So, how do you light the creative spark in these types of students?” You can read… Read More »Reluctant composers & Sparking student creativity

Music Education Advocacy & Harvard Project Zero

Thanks to glued to the string (an excellent string education blog) after recently posting about music education advocacy, I came across the article “Arts Education; Book Tackles Old Debate: Role of Art In Schools“** featuring researchers at Harvard Project Zero. The article is about their arts education research and new book “Studio Thinking: The Real Benefits of Visual Arts Education,” which seems to have some pretty important implications for arts advocacy. While the book will focus on visual arts there… Read More »Music Education Advocacy & Harvard Project Zero

MENC Music Education Advocacy Resources Available

As you gear up for the upcoming school year consider taking advantage of several free advocacy resources being offered by MENC. “The Power of Music” Advocacy Brochure Series is one resource available as a set of pdf files. “Music for All students: Planning Music Education Advocacy” (also available as a pdf file) gives step by step suggestions for working with colleagues, parents, administrators and community members to structure and organize advocacy over the course of the school year. Music Friends… Read More »MENC Music Education Advocacy Resources Available