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 brochures are also available for distribution to parents of students. To obtain some free copies of brochures contact Stephanie Jones with your name, address, and the number of brochures you would like.

In addition to taking advantage of these resources, it may be beneficial to engage in dialogue with colleagues over the various philosophical issues and factual statements that arise when discussing advocacy.

Statements such as

“Research shows music study actively contributes to brain development; therefore, music education leads to success in developing intelligence” (included in several advocacy letters with the “Music For All Students: Planning Music Education Advocacy” packet)

can bring about important discussions in areas of music cognition, research, advocacy, and philosophy. Discussions might touch on whether or not assertions such as these should be made, how to gather empirical evidence to support them and may even lead to expanded dialogue on the importance of music cognition research to the field of music education.

Whether or not your music department currently engages in advocacy, it is definitely worth downloading these resources, discussing them with colleagues and considering if you would like to use them in your schools.