13 Reasons

Update, 2/1/21: Looking back on this post, it's guttingly poignant to note that one month later, June 2017, this tragic topic would become all too real when one of Brenna's childhood friends took her own life. It's still difficult to process; I don't have anything else to say at this point, other than mental health …

MCPSSUPER

I've been following Joshua Starr, Superintendent of Montgomery County in MD on Twitter (my news feed app) for about a year. Very intelligent, pragmatic education leader. Here's a 30 min. video of him outlining their plan to deal with numerous issues, including common core. It provides a good context for the challenges facing education, and what types …

Alternate Notation?

This is the first I've heard of this, but my first instinct is to agree with the reviewer quoted. Studying music history, I'm well aware that our current notation system was a long-time evolving solution to various musical challenges, and continues to evolve - just look at avant-garde 20th Century pieces. The historical developments of …

Paying for College

I spend quite a bit of time advising my students on where to transfer to, and financial considerations are no small part of it. As a parent, this is well on my radar also, since my oldest is only five years (yikes) away. Here's an excellent interview with Ron Lieber with advice on paying for …

Brilliant idea.

Ethnomusicologist Patrick Feaster recreates a gramophone recording from a picture!

Public funding private

I'm in favor of moving this direction. Given the fiscal crisis in the state of education, government aid should exist to fund public endeavors - not so much private. Not that there aren't worthy private institutions, but isn't the "market" concept supposed to weed out the ones that can't/shouldn't cut it on their own? I'm …

Live or Memorex?

Live or Memorex?It would be head-in-the-sand to pretend that things haven't changed, but it is a conversation as old as the wax cylinder: will people still go to live concerts with the plethora of easy/cheap recordings? My answer is yes, as long as live concerts still fulfill essential human qualities of interaction and meaning, i.e., …

Gun Control

Let me take a crack at this: Having heard and read a great deal from both sides, I wanted to focus on the Bill of Rights arguments.  On the second amendment, there tends to a lot of heat with little light. Most simply, and I believe at its heart, the second amendment is about - …

Open source texbooks

It will be interesting to see how this develops. Textbooks are very expensive, but producing them is not cheap, either. As with all digital threats to various media (newspapers, books, music, movies), the long-term concern is that if people and/or companies/institutions are not adequately compensated, will they produce (quality)?

Gold Arts

Although I've become quite taken with swim of late, it would be truly something to see this come back.