Teachers Teaching Teachers: Revitalization in an Urban Setting

Abstract

t's no secret that some of the music education curricula in many of our school systems-and the systems themselvesare like rusting locomotives shunted off to a side track. Although the curricula and school systems are not exactly forgotten, they are not given the attention they need to accomplish the goal of educating every child in our society. The educational dilemmas of students, teachers, and communities are analyzed in A Nation Reformed? American Education 20 Years after a Nation at Risk.' In the foreword, Graham summarizes three main ideas expressed by scholars, practitioners, and policy analysts in the book: (1) the incoherent purposes Americans have for their schools, (2) the rough transition from educational policy to educational practice, and (3) the amount of time required to change practices. As we ponder the conundrum of academic, sociological, and psychological purposes of education and the educational system's sluggish responses to policy initiatives, we begin to understand why music education can be shunted to a side track. All too often, our urban schools suffer the most. These problems were discussed in more than one hundred sessions about urban students, teachers, and schools at the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting in Chicago in April