TonieneralMusicColumn skelton generalMusicChair

at this writing the first week of school is history and the fifth special session of the Oregon Legislature is ongoing. Not only have our state leaders failed to find a solution for funding of public services, but also they have threatened to hold any funding decision hostage until PERS has been abolished. The uncertainty, the atmosphere of distrust, and the implication that public employees continue to pad budgets to serve their own selfish purposes at the expense of the hapless taxpayers weigh heavily upon the thousands of dedicated educators who continue to serve Oregon students under impossible odds.

The demoralization process is compounded for Oregon’s music educators. All too often, music programs are at the top of the list of budget cuts. The reductions are punctuated by comments from school officials and board members, to the effect that music is “extra-curricular,” that after-school music instruction would be more than sufficient, and that, really, only a minority of very talented students will benefit from comprehensive music instruc-tion. Those who hold these and similar opinions don’t get it. All too often, we begin to doubt ourselves and develop a stomach-churning sensation, which is aptly described by my Kansas-born mother as “the last chapter of ‘What’s the Use?’” Does anyone value our place in the comprehensive school curriculum? Who understands the difference that a quality music education makes in the lives of the generation that will determine our fate when we are senior citizens?

The most significant answers to these questions usually come to us when we least expect them—and from a completely unanticipated source. That point was driven home to me last April, when I attended the national MENC conference in Nashville. We all go to conferences to rejuvenate, revitalize, and sharpen our skills, and this conference did not disappoint. Inspiration and affirmation were in abundance, from the opening general session in which composer/pianist Marvin Hamlisch gave the keynote address and played a medley of his works to the breathtak- continued on page 14