cator, Fort Bragg, California. Editor's note: The May 1996 MEJ cover bore a photo of a dance troupe of Hawaiian chil- dren. Music. Minus. One. t u n c catalogue.
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Grading Practices Michele Kaschub Music Educators Journal 1996; 83; 9 DOI: 10.2307/3398956 The online version of this article can be found at: http://mej.sagepub.com
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MENC: The National Association for Music Education
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READERS' COMMENT Grading Practices The March 1996 ME] article by Kirk Kassner entitled "Management Systems for Music Teachers" certainly offers a wealth of wonderful strategies for organizing the daily functions of performance ensembles. However, I was saddened to see yet another article featuring assessment issues and grading practices that emphasize nonmusical criteria such as courtesy, responsibility, dependability, helpfulness, and extra credit. Of the seven criteria suggested (p. 3 7 ) , only two—improvement in skills and concepts and home practice—allude to music, and then with heavy emphasis on technical skills rather than musical understanding. How would our colleagues in other branches of education react if encouraged to grade based on a criterion of citizenship rather than student acquisition of knowledge and skill as evidenced in performance that demonstrates understanding? Music education has come too far to be returned to a "fun and games, social function" perspective. We must simply do b e t t e r . — M i c h e l e Kaschuby Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois
Words from Sousa I read with interest the quotation by John Philip Sousa in "The Last Word" (pg. 16) of the January 1996 ME]. As a retired band director and Sousa buff, I like everything about his life. I just finished a research project on Sousa. I have located and documented through newspaper articles twelve concerts that he gave in Spokane during the period of 1896 to 1927. The last four were given at the Lewis and C l a r k High School in Spokane, where I was band director S E P T E M B E R
Music Minus One
for twenty-nine years. It was in an interview at the September 26, 1927, concert that Sousa said, "High school bands represent the new basis of American instrumental m u s i c . " T h e i n t e r v i e w was w i t h Charles W. Elkins, the schools band director at the time, and was published in the Lewis and Clark Journal. I believe this is a quote worth noting and publicizing.—C. Oliver Fuller, band director (retired), Lewis and Clark High School, Spokane, Washington
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catalogue
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Cover Photo The cover of the May 1996 ME] displayed a colorful print of a group of dancing children. Below the picture were three titles of featured articles in the May issue, the first being "Dance in the Curriculum." I don't think it was unreasonable of me to expect some reference to the picture to be made in the journal, which placed as its first article Marie McCarthy's eloquent case in favor of teaching dance in schools. I thought such a reference might answer some questions that arose as I looked at the interesting picture: Who were these y o u n g dancers? W h a t was their nationality? Who provided these elaborate costumes? But there was no information except a photo credit given to the Arts Council of Fairfax County and the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts. Did everyone on your staff believe that your readers wouldn't want to know more about that tantalizing photograph?—Robert B. Comer, music educator, Fort Bragg, California
Editor's note: The
May 1996
MEJ cover
bore
a photo of a dance troupe of Hawaiian c h i l dren.
1 9 9 6 Downloaded from http://mej.sagepub.com at MENC on October 16, 2009
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