Music of Andrew F. Poor

Another, all too common, headline:  APS cuts 18 music and arts teachers After reading numerous articles on the proposed elimination of music programs in the Atlanta Public Schools, I have been thinking a great deal about music advocacy. I discovered a thoughtful and compelling discussion from two of the leading music education philosophers of our time. From their blog, MusicMatters2 , Eliott and Silverman, clearly articulate the conflict between music education and education reformers. Because music education has no immediate, short-term, hard-currency profits or products that narrowly educated business people and policymakers can measure—music is often eliminated to make room in the curriculum for math and literacy test prep that’s not “educational,” because standardized test scores are neither valid nor reliable indicators of deep mathematical and literary understanding. Or anything else. I find this paragraph particularly compelling for me. Music making is a lifetime ...