Valuing Music in Education: A Charles Fowler Reader

by Craig Resta

Overview

Noted music education and arts activist Charles Fowler has inspired music educators for more than 60 years. In this book, editor Craig Resta brings together the most important of Fowler's writings from the journal Musical America for new generations of readers.

Here, Fowler speaks to many timeless issues including creativity and culture in the classroom, school funding, reform and policy, assessment and pedagogy, and equality and pluralism in music education. The articles are both research-based and practical, and helpful for many of the most important concerns in school-based advocacy and scholarly inquiry today. Resta offers critical commentary with compelling background to these enduring pieces, placing them in a context that clarifies the benefit of their message to music and arts education.

Fowler's words speak to all who have a stake in music education: students, teachers, parents, administrators, performers, community members, business leaders, arts advocates, scholars, professors, and researchers alike. Valuing Music in Education is ideal for everyone who understands the critical role of music in schools and society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199944385
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	10/05/2016
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	314
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Craig Resta holds degrees from the University of Maryland, Indiana University, and Baylor University. His background is in instrumental and orchestra pedagogy, along with sociocultural and historical research in music teaching and learning. He is presently Associate Professor of Music Education at Kent State University, and Editor of the juried journal, Contributions to Music Education.

Table of Contents

PREFACE
DEDICATION
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION
FOREWORD: Marie McCarthy & Bruce Wilson

SECTION ONE: MUSIC PEDAGOGY AND SCHOOLING
1. National Survey of Musical Performance
2. Music In Our Schools Day: An Opportunity to Take Stock
3. The Accountability Dilemma
4. Arts in the Schools: A Comprehensive View
5. High Schools of the Arts
6. Musical Achievement: Good News & Bad
7. A Look into the Crystal Ball
8. Music: A Basic Intelligence
9. The Shameful Neglect of Creativity
10. Academic Excellence in Teaching the Arts
11. Evaluation: Pros and Cons
12. Music in Our Schools: The First 150 Years

SECTION TWO: ADVOCACY AND ARTS EDUCATION POLICY
13. Education in the Arts: Getting It All Together
14. The Role of the National Endowment (for the Arts)
15. A New Rationale for the Arts in Education
16. What's Wrong with Music Education?
17. Funding for Arts Programs: The Total is Not So Bleak
18. Arts Education: Does the Left Hand Know?
19. Congress and the Arts: Getting With It
20. Arts in Basic Education: A Fight for Life?
21. Arts Policy in the U.S: Do We Have One?
22. Music for Every Child, Every Child for Music
23. Arts Education Triple Jeopardy

SECTION THREE: ARTS, CULTURE, AND COMMUNITY
24. The Smithsonian: Teaching Our Musical Heritage
25. Valuing Our Cultural Treasury
26. The Community School Movement
27. Senior Citizen Symphony Brings Music to Children
28. Public Universities: The New Cultural Centers
29. Reaching Kids (Part I): How Symphonies Do It
30. Reaching Kids (Part II): How Opera Companies Do It
31. Whose Culture Should We Teach?

SECTION FOUR: MUSIC EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL REFORM
32. The Music Educators National Conference (MENC): David Faces New Goliaths
33. The Tanglewood Symposium Revisited
34. Music in Our Schools: An Agenda for the Future
35. Changing Schools Through the Arts
36. The Lack of Professionalism in Higher Education
37. The Lack of Professionalism in Higher Education-Continued
38. Music Educators Meet-But Do They Miss the Point?
39. Are Teachers of the Arts Good Enough?
40. Educational Reform: Ferment in the Arts
41. Teacher Overhaul: Can We Do It?

SECTION FIVE: DIVERSITY AND PLURALISM IN MUSIC EDUCATION
42. Poverty: An Ingrained Idea
43. Sex Bias in the Music Room
44. Special Treatment for the Gifted
45. More Arts for the Handicapped
46. Black Participation at the Kennedy Center: Goals are Set for Cultural Diversity
47. The Christmas Carol Hassle
48. Arts by the Handicapped: A National Very Special Arts Festival
49. Older Americans: A New Resource of Creative Talent
50. The Many Versus the Few

INDEX

Editorial Reviews

"Rereading Charles Fowler's balanced insights on music education reminds one of his major contribution on the profession's thinking. Few events, organizations, or personalities escaped his attention for their role in advancing the development of aesthetic sensitivities through creative experiences. He communicated to a wide audience his prescient ideas on the importance of a 'new' or reformed music education for schools and communities."
—Richard Colwell, Professor Emeritus, University of Illinois

"Resta's compilation is a timeless treasure of Charles Fowler's insightful perspectives on music education in the latter half of the twentieth century. It will be an outstanding reference for both undergraduate and graduate students in realizing and contextualizing many current trends and issues in terms of broader historical understanding. At its best, it will catalyze emerging music education leaders to build on the work of giants, such as Fowler, whose legacy of deep reflection and initiative helped sustain arts learning opportunities for thousands of students."
—David Myers, Professor of Music Education and Creative Studies and Media, University of Minnesota

From the Publisher