The Manhattanville Music Curriculum Program: 1966–1970

Abstract

The Manhattanville Music Curriculum Program (MMCP) was a major curriculum reform effort in the United States during the 1960s, a decade characterized by curricular innovation and experimentation. The direct impetus for this unique education reform movement was the 1957 launch of the world's first successful space satellite, Sputnik I, after which education came seen as vital the nation's survival during the Cold War with the Soviet Union. In response this perceived national crisis, for the first time in history the federal government began support public school education, partially by funding large curriculum reform projects. During this period of unprecedented financial support, diverse groups formed alliances and made concerted efforts improve the existing school curricula. MMCP was launched at a time when government involvement and support for arts education had just reached its highest point, in the wake of the Kennedy Administration's interest in and support for the arts and the enactment of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (1965). MMCP received the largest federal grant, before or since, in the field of music curriculum development: a sum of $221,000 from the Arts and Humanities Program (AHP) of the U.S. Office of Education. The founder and director of the project Ronald B. Thomas was a faculty member at Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart in Purchase, New York. The project brought together prominent musicians, educators, and institutions which put innovative educational ideas into practice. Despite the fact that the MMCP is considered one of the major projects in contemporary American music education history, only one large-scale historical study on the project has been completed. An article on the beginnings of MMCP (1957-1966) based on that larger study has been published. The current paper, the second monograph drawn from the larger study, traces the development of the MMCP from 1966 1970. (1) Chronological Description and Implementation: 1966-70 The primary goal of the MMCP was develop an alternative music curriculum for grades K-12. The objectives of the project, listed in the contract with the U.S. Office of Education, included: (1) to prepare a curriculum guide and related materials designed for the primary through the high school years, all using discovery approaches; (2) to develop a meaningful sequence of basic musical concepts in terms of the children's understanding; and (3) to more closely unify philosophies and directions of all areas and levels of music learning through the development of a spiral-type curriculum. (2) Thomas invited twenty-two expert consultants, including musical performers (seven), music educators (seven), and general educators (eight). The practicing musicians were involved in cutting-edge fields ranging from electronic music jazz. A significant feature of the program was the preponderance of composers, including Lionel Nowak, Henry Brant, Charles Wuorinen, and James Tenney. (3) A prominent music educator, Robert A. Choate of Boston University, directed the program during the months of July and August 1966. Other major figures involved were Edwin E. Gordon and George H. Kyme, both in the area of program assessment, and several curriculum specialists from the field of education. The project also involved thirty-eight school teachers and administrators, called teacher-consultants, for a total of sixty professionals. (4) The new music curriculum was developed in three phases: extensive experimentation through pilot testing, extended pilot testing, and final revisions. (5) Phase One (1966-67): Extensive Experimentation The first formal year of the program began with a five-week summer workshop at Manhattanville College in 1966. This workshop served as a planning and training session for nineteen teachers from the greater New York area. The workshop faculty was Choate, Thomas, Nowak, and Brant. …