Dear Parents: It is with great excitement that I welcome your family to our instrumental music program! Learning to play a musical instrument and acquiring the unique habits of mind that come with it is one of the most incredible opportunities … [Continue reading]
I ran across a piece last week on Huffington Post warning people that they should not advocate for music education using the argument that it helps with academic and test performance, etc. The author, Peter Greene, even went so far as to say that it … [Continue reading]
I become very passionate when writing about school administrators' lack of awareness of the benefits of instrumental music in school curricula, and how parents can help advocate for programs that their children are involved in. There is no doubt … [Continue reading]
The Superintendent of Atlanta Public Schools recently declared that APS will have 18 fewer band and orchestra teaching positions when students return to school in August. After quite a bit of outcry, Dr. Carstarphen explained her rationale on her … [Continue reading]
I spent a decade teaching band in a middle school classroom in Brooklyn, NY. I started students on band instruments, from scratch, in a group of 100 -- no small group lessons. By 8th grade, the students were performing high school and college level … [Continue reading]
This is a guest post by performance psychologist Dr. Noa Kageyama. Noa is on the faculty of The Juilliard School and teaches performing artists how to utilize sport psychology principles and more consistently perform up to their full abilities under … [Continue reading]
I have spent many years visiting public schools throughout our nation, and most times I see the same thing: students hard at work. There is always lots of work going on in our schools, and with the increased emphasis on meeting national and state … [Continue reading]
Graduating from one to school to the next is both an exciting and crazy time, to say the least. The changes that are occurring biologically, socially, and academically in children are enough to make parents' heads spin. With a change in school … [Continue reading]
Our nation has been deeply committed to closing the achievement gap that exists in our education system for almost 15 years. Achievement gaps occur when one group of students outperforms another group and the difference in average scores for the two … [Continue reading]
What if everyone believed that there was no such thing as natural talent and inborn gifts? Our world is obsessed with discovering innate abilities. Our media -- and subsequently our schools -- have created a culture where most people believe that … [Continue reading]
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