1991 - Music Makes The Difference in Education

							T
         oday, the value of the arts and the cultural toler-
          ance which is vital to the flourishing of new ideas
          is held in very low esteem by much of the leader-
 ship of our country. How else to explain the fact that many
 music education programs are in ruin across the nation?"
 wrote Recording Academy President Michael Greene last
 year,when NARAS joined forces with the National Asso-
 ciation of Music Merchants (NAMM) and the Music
 Educators National Conference (MENC) to develop the
 "Music Makes A Difference" campaign and organize the
 National Commission on Music Education.
    The Commission is a distinguished group of more than
 40 educators, business leaders and "musical statesmen."
 These include Quincy Jones, Henry Mancini, Gloria
 Estefan, Whitney Houston, Billy Joel, Marilyn McCoo,
 Luciano Pavarotti, Itzhak Perlman, Andre Previn, Gerard
 Schwarz, Emmylou Harris and Barbara Mandrell.
    The object of the Commission is to stress that national
goals for education must include the study of music and
other arts for the sake of the nation's creative future.
   "The freedom to create and dream ... the access to the
basic arts education, which every citizen of our country,
regardless of economic background, has the right to ex-
pect, are principles that we must protect," commented           THE   NATIONAL    COMMISSION      ON   MUSIC   EDUCATION
Greene. "The school reform effort of the 1980s tended to
gloss over the importance of music and other arts for a
well-rounded education and many in the music and re-             Congress as part of a National Symposium entitled
cording industry are concerned about that. The effort by         "America's Culture At Risk." The Symposium takes place
the National Commission for Music Education will afford         next month in Washington and will closelyexamine three
many of them an opportunity to speak to issues we all have      major challenges confronting music education today:
a stake in."                                                    students at risk, cultural diversity and preparing children
    Greene cites some examples: in California the number        for a globally competitive world.
of students playing in high school bands and orchestras            The Symposium is only the beginning of the campaign.
was cut in half between 1982 and 1986 and 98 percent of         Already in preparation are a number of public service
the state's children are not involved in music at all.          announcements by major music stars, a video that has
    "This is worse than lip service," he noted.                 Henry Mancini addressing the problems of music edu-
    Three major public forums were held last year on behalf     cation ("We have to retire the myth that says music and
of the Commission and its Music Makes The Difference            the other arts are a frill," he says), a workbook on how
progr~m, in Los Angeles (where speakers included jazz           individuals at the grass roots levels can get involved, and
artist Wynton Marsalis), Chicago, and Nashville, where          more.
Rosanne Cash commented 'I am an artist who lives in a              'We have done a great deal during the past 12months,"
world that increasingly seems to devalue and limit artistic     says Greene. "But we have only scratched the surface
expressions, and the world, to me, seems out of balance. "      concerning this important issue."
    Research and testimony from the forums and from a              Music Makes The Difference and the Commission
petition circulated nationwide, plus information received       have a simple credo: that there can be no music without
bythe Commission from other sources will form the basis         learning, no education is complete without music.
of a report to be presented to the Bush Administration and         Music, in fact, makes the difference.




                                                                                                                              171