Building Support / Advocacy
Instrumental Music Education and the Power of Play in Our Schools
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...
4 Ways Parents Can Ensure Their Child Sticks with Instrumental Music When They Graduate to Middle School
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...
The Music Education (or Creativity) Achievement Gap in America, and How We Can Begin to Fix It
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...
How Parents can Change Their Family Tree Through Their Child’s Music Education
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...
Why Students Don’t Like School (and How Music Instruction Changes That)
We have learned more about how the brain works in the last decade than ever before. Even with all the new knowledge we have about how children learn, our schools...
An End-of-Year Letter to New Music Parents
Dear Parents:As our school year winds down, I would like to congratulate you on completing the first year of your child’s instrumental music study!...
Music Education’s Role in a Culture of “College Preparedness”
While the United States used to pride itself on the percentage of its young people who successfully passed through the higher education system, things have changed...
Why Parents Need to Know What Great Music Teaching “Looks” Like
On any given day, one can scroll down Facebook and see inspiring memes and articles about the benefits of music education. Articles sprout up in major...
Why Students Really Quit Their Musical Instrument (and How Parents Can Prevent It)
Every year almost 100% of public school students begin an instrument though their school’s music program (if a program exists). One or two years later, more...
