If you have a great story that conveys the importance of music in your community or in the lives of your students, hundreds of teachers and administrators would like to read it.

Storytelling is a powerful way to convey a message, and MENC needs your anecdotes and quotations to add to the “Make Your Case” database on its Web site. (The database also includes research and statistics about music learning.)

According to Michael Blakeslee, MENC’s Senior Deputy Executive Director, “Advocacy efforts need to reach decision-makers with facts and figures. But that data has to be given an authentic voice—a voice that rings true with pictures of the many ways music programs help students develop and grow.”

To share your short anecdote about music’s value, e-mail it to advocacy@menc2.org. To see other entries, visit “Make Your Case”.

Attributions for quotes are needed, but original information can come from you, and all you’ll need to give is your name, title, and school. Your expertise as a teacher or teacher-educator can help others maintain and expand their programs.

All entries are screened by MENC staff before publication online. Questions can be directed to Hannah Sharp at advocacy@menc2.org.

--Ella Wilcox, October 28, 2009, © MENC: The National Association for Music Education (www.menc.org)