Valuing Music in Education: A Charles Fowler Reader

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.

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

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.

Review :
"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