The existential contexts of education reach far beyond the conceptions of Goals 2000 or the appalling actualities of family breakdown, homelessness, violence, and other "savage inequalities." Classroom encounters with the arts can move the young to imagine, extend, and renew. If the arts' significance for growth, inventiveness, and…

This essay traces the development of music in the public school curriculum and focuses on the Goals 2000 emphasis on music in life. Music has been a part of the high school curriculum since the Boston school system accepted it in 1838. While music education for much of this century has had difficulties defining itself and its role in the…

Comments on remarks by A. Graham Down, president of the Council for Basic Education, about integrating arts education into the curriculum. Concludes that, when the arts are channeled into the mainstream and made part and parcel of everything, arts education becomes dangerously confused. (CFR)

Maintains that the Music Educators National Conference (MENC) achieved an important symbolic victory by being a primary developer of the National Standards for Arts Education. Presents and discusses five issues related to the Goals 2000 program in general and the standards related to music education in particular. (CFR)

Asserts that it is important to avoid bandwagon superficialities related to the interdisciplinary approach to arts education in the K-12 curriculum. Concludes that the overarching issue related to the National Standards implementation is how to keep content and process in a productive relationship. (CFR)

Maintains that the effort to develop and implement national standards in the arts is politically correct but not free of psychological or pedagogical viewpoints. Asserts that educators must formulate the right questions and assess objectively the potential outcomes of an arts education program in reformed schools. (CFR)

Asserts that the current focus on voluntary national standards has catapulted arts education into a new prominence. Discusses the background and tactics of current educational reform efforts. Concludes that, without empirical research and assessment, the proposed curricular standards will remain an educational fad. (CFR)