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 [Publisher description].

Foreword / Marie McCarthy & Bruce Wilson -- Section one : Music pedagogy and schooling -- National survey of musical performance -- Music In our Schools Day : an opportunity to take stock -- The accountability dilemma -- Arts in the schools : a comprehensive view -- High schools of the arts -- Musical achievement : good news & bad -- A look into the crystal ball -- Music : a basic intelligence -- The shameful neglect of creativity -- Academic excellence in teaching the arts -- Evaluation : pros and cons -- Music in our schools : the first 150 years -- Section two : Advocacy and arts education policy -- Education in the arts : getting it all together -- The role of the National Endowment (for the Arts) -- A new rationale for the arts in education -- What's wrong with music education? -- Funding for arts programs : the total is not so bleak -- Arts education : does the left hand know? -- Congress and the arts : getting with it -- Arts in basic education : a fight for life? -- Arts policy in the U.S : do we have one? -- Music for every child, every child for music -- Arts education triple jeopardy -- Section three : Arts, culture, and community -- The Smithsonian : teaching our music…