MENC Members Attract Media Coverage for Music In Our Schools Month Activities

In March music educators and their schools around the United States are attracting media coverage for their Music In Our Schools Month® (MIOSM®) activities.

• The Advocate in North Adams, Massachusetts, quoted both the music teacher and the principal at Stearns Elementary School. Principal Jean Bednarski said the strong music program at the school contributed to high test scores, and she praised the work of music teachers there. Read the story

• The Herald News in Fall River, Massachusetts published a story recently about MIOSM activities in the Fall River Public Schools. In the story MENC member Betty Yokell discussed the many benefits of music education. Yokell is director of fine arts and music for the Fall River schools. Read the story 

• Stories also have addressed realities of school funding cuts and staffing issues for music educators. In a story in the Eden Prairie News, a reporter used Music In Our Schools Month to discuss the district’s respected school music program. The Eden Prairie (Minnesota) schools will be transitioning from a K–4 to a K–6 elementary school system. School administrators in Eden Prairie are working on a plan that balances the needs of music instruction and funding cuts for the school music program.
  Read more about Eden Prairie, named one of the Best 100 Communities for Music Education in the United States.

• Reinforcing the MIOSM theme, “Music Lasts a Lifetime,” choir director Diane Heaney at Albert Lea High School in Albert Lea, Minnesota, told a reporter at the Albert Lea Tribune that “music is important for students because many stick with it and go on to be in community bands or sing in church choirs or other informal groups.” The MENC member added: “It’s a lifelong skill.” Heaney explained that music students’ “work together to prepare for concerts teaches them important life skills like cooperating with each other and learning to stick with things.”

Read the Albert Lea Tribune story 

MENC members who received print, broadcast or online coverage for their music programs during MIOSM are welcome to email Roz Fehr, MENC managing editor for news, with web links that we can post online to share with other music educators.

Parents, Press and Others

The Facts and Benefits of Music Education

Advocate for Music Education

--Roz Fehr, March 25, 2011. © MENC: The National Association for Music Education