Abstract
As the year ends, I’d like to extend a tremendous thank you to the Editorial and Advisory Committees of Music Educators Journal (MEJ). These individuals—from previous Academic Editor Patrick K. Freer and his successor Katherine (“Katy”) Strand, to the entire group of unpaid volunteers who keep the MEJ engine running—have made a difference in the lives of music teachers and teacher educators worldwide. Many future teachers have found that their transition to the profession was eased by reading articles in MEJ, and practitioners have referred to the journal for more than a century.
September 22, 2016, marked thirty years from the day I was hired at Music Educators National Conference (MENC), now the National Association for Music Education (NAfME). After three decades, I continue to be amazed at the dedication and hard work of the MEJ editorial leadership. It’s a joy to interact with those who believe in working toward the goal of seeing that “every student has access to a well-balanced, comprehensive, and high-quality program of music instruction taught by qualified teachers” (http://www.nafme.org/about/). It’s not everyone who has the privilege of working with people who go the second mile every day.
There’s a piece of Native American wisdom that says “Be thankful for unknown blessings already on their way.” This idea comes to me often, especially when I think of the people who change the world one project at a time—and who usually have about forty-two projects on their to do lists any given week! Music teachers transform lives, and teacher-educators make this transformation possible. Dozens of these professionals have built MEJ and other NAfME publications and continue to do so in addition to fulfilling their teaching and family responsibilities.
Have you thanked a music teacher lately? Make 2017 the year to do this.
Music Educators Journal;
Erratum
In the September 2016 Music Educators Journal, there were some spacing issues in Figures 4 and 5 on p. 39 of Ayah Rifai’s article, “Learning through Immersive Study: Contexualizing Music in the Elementary Music Classroom.” The last bullet in each figure was inadvertently split into two items when in each case, it should have been just one item as shown in the following:
Resources for a Native American Music Unit (Ages 6 and Older)
Resources for a Multicultural Music Unit (Ages 7 and Older)