But of course, you say. Well, this is one of those things you want to watch, for the funding for field trips is closely associated with funding for teaching artists, arts supplies, school plays, etc. While the stimulus money for education will pour significant funds into some schools, at the very same time other schools…

Only Children Need Apply Okay, of course we all know about teaching artists providing arts instruction in schools. We also know of non-arts teachers providing arts instruction (which predates the arts teacher). We also know, although it is still an outlier in arts education, of parents and other volunteers teaching arts. Okay, here’s a new…

I once had the great good fortune to be taken to the woodshed by Warren Simmons, head of the Annenberg Institute for School Reform. Warren gave me a brilliant lesson on advocacy through the lens of informed engagement. Without information, the engagement was likely to fail. What and how would you inform those you seek…

Jane Remer’s Cliff Notes (Number Three):  The Arts Just Don’t Fit in Most of Our Schools Face it: The arts still don’t fit in most of our schools and none of the advocacy claims made for them have helped a whit in the last five decades. The arts community – arts educators, arts organizations, artists…

Reading the news on NewMusicBox just this moment brought a big smile to my face. There was a time, a long, long time, when Reich didn’t stand a chance to win a Pulitzer, as there was a stylistic bias against such music at the Pulitzer and any other number of important music awards. So many…

In one of my entries last week, Diane Ravitch on Mayoral Control of the Schools, I highlighted Ravitch’s New York Times Op-Ed piece on school governance. This week, the chancellor of the New York City public schools, Joel I. Klein, responded with a letter to the editor:New York Schools: The Chancellor’s Report Card “The national…

No, that’s not a mistake, it’s not one of those moments when you screw up while doing a spell check. Ever have that happen with an email, you approve the correction that changes the word to a non-sequitur and off it goes!! (Lord knows, I’ve gone back to a blog or two I’ve written and…

Visiting a school in Chicago, Education Secretary Arne Duncan gets questioned about arts education by a student. This comes from a Chicago Tribune piece titled: Teacher Jobs and Reform Tops Duncan’s List …students asked questions about the economy and school programming. One asked how funding would continue for music and the arts. “It will take…

In today’s New York Times, there is a front page piece by Dan Barry titled: At an Age for Music and Imagination, Real Life Is Intruding. It’s the story about a smart and musically talented high school student who has dreams of pursuing a career as a violinist, but who will choose instead to enter…

It’s been a while in the making and it’s interesting as the staff had a major role in putting it together. Click here to watch Ford Foundation President Luis A. Ubiñas introduce the new plan. “A comprehensive set of new strategies aimed at creating fairness and equity for people everywhere.” What’s in it for the…