Archives for September 2006

The flight here is very long.  I had difficulty in getting to sleep on the plane.  Fortunately, I had plenty of reading material.  I was able to get through 18 magazines and other materials – that lightens my load considerably.  And provided lots of food for thought.

I really can never throw away a magazine without at least scanning each page.  This leads to lots of clutter  – but it also yields lots of gems of inormation.

Looking at my passport I relize that it has been 7 years since my last visit to Austrlaia – I am sure that a lot has changed.  I can already see some of the improvements that were made to prepare Sydney for the Olympic Games a few years ago.

Now I head up to The Gold Coast near Brisbane where the conference will be held.  I am looking forward to delivering my keynote address.  I'll post a report as the conference unfolds.

I am flying down to Australia this evening.  The Australian Music Association have invited me to deliver a keynote address as part of their Music Educators Day at their annual trade fair.

I will be talking about “21st Century Music Education.”  The music education programs in Australia are undergoing a major revision – to Essential Learning Outcomes.  They want me to provide their teachers with an American perspective – how teaching and education in the USA developed as we embraced the National Standards for Music Education; coped with the mandates of No Child Left Behind legislation, etc.

I am very excited to have this opportunity to work with teachers, administrators, government officials, and music industry colleagues.

I will do my best to keep posting to this blog while I am in Australia – perhaps gaining some different perspectives!

I want to thank Ann Blore, the editor of Music in Action magazine for providing me with valuable research materials to prepare my talk.

In a subsequent post, I will thank my industry sponsors who helped to make this trip possible.