1. The Goals and Objectives Project
(GO, 1969)
MENC Response to the Tanglewood
Symposium (1968)

2. MENC
• Music Educator’s National Conference
• Named in 1934 as a development from
previous organisation known as the Music
Supervisor’s National Conference
• Since 1998 known as National Association for
Music Education (NAfME)
• Renaming reflects the growth in the
organisation’s inclusiveness to include
administrators, educators and the public

3. Tanglewood Symposium 1968
• Organised by MENC to provide a vision and
leadership for the future of American music
education
• Response of angry music education providers
to the Yale Seminar (1963) which excluded
those who delivered music education
• Wider societal changes also impelled a rethink
of music education within the wider
educational framework

4. Societal catalysts
• School reform – given an added impetus after
the launch of Sputnik by the USSR in 1957
• Civil rights – particularly issues of
inclusiveness and equality following on Brown
v. Topeka, 1954
• Technology – how to respond to new
developments, an unexplored area at that
time

5. The Vision of Tanglewood
• Reflected the views of music educators
combined with interests from government,
business and industry
• Awareness of the importance of the
aesthetic domain of learning along with
cognitive, affective and psychomotor learning
formed an important backdrop to the
philosophical position outlined in the vision

6. The Tanglewood Declaration
• Documentary Report of the Tanglewood
Symposium, (Washingtom, DC: Music
Educator’s National Conference, 1968)
• A key sentence from the report:
we believe that education must have as major
goals the art of living, the building of personal
identity, and nurturing creativity. Since the study
of music can contribute much to these ends, we
now call for music to be placed at the core of the
school curriculum

7. The Goals and Objectives Project
(1969-1970)
• Directed by Paul Lehman, with eighteen
subcommittees given responsibility for clearly
defined areas
• Examples: preparation, early childhood,
information technology, musical enrichment
of national life, music of non-western cultures
• In 1970 a report was produced listing goals for
MENC, the profession and thirty five general
objectives

8. Goals for MENC
• To conduct programs and activities to build:
– A vital music culture
– An enlightened musical public

9. Goals for Music Educators
• Comprehensive music programs in all schools
• Involvement of all ages in learning music
• Quality preparation of teachers
• Use of the most effective techniques and
resources in music instructions

10. Prioritising tasks
• A list of eight priorities was chosen by MENC
• These priorities became the focus for MENC
addressed by publications, conferences,
committees and commissions as the
organisation pursued it’s goal of advocate and
representative for music in education
• The organisation achieved it’s goal of a
permanent home in Reston, Virginia in 1975

11. Objectives and tasks:
priorities (1)
• Lead in music development of music programs
in a pluralistic society
• Lead in the development of programs that
correlate performing, creating and listening to
music
• help teachers identify musical behaviours
relevant to the needs of students
• Advance the teaching of all styles and forms of
music

12. Objectives and tasks:
priorities (2)
• Ensure all music instruction is delivered by a
well trained cohort of teachers
• Expand music programs to encourage greater
involvement and commitment by students
• Lead in the application of new developments
in every area of educational research
• Lead in advocacy for sufficient funds, staff and
time for music education

13. Follow – up to GO
• Two commissions were appointed to begin
implementing recommendations
• National Commission on Organisational
Development
• National Commission on Instruction

14. Key publications
• The School Music Program: Description and
Standards (Vienna, VA: Music Educator’s
National Conference, 1974)
• Ernst, K., and Gary, C. (eds.) Music in General
Education. Washington, D.C.: Music Educators
National Conference, 1965

15. Transatlantic resonance
• Swanwick, Keith. A Basis for Music Education.
Berkshire: NFER-Nelson, 1979
• C(L)A(S)P
• Composition, Audition, Performance
• Supported by Literature studies and Skill
acquisition
• Identifies music education as primarily aesthetic
and builds on the ideas of inclusivity outlined so
well in the Tanglewood Declaration

16. Bibliography
• Abeles, Harold F., Hoffer, Charles R., Klotman, Robert H. Foundations of
Music Education. New York: Schirmer, 1984
• Abeles, Harold F., Custodero, Lori A. Critical Issues in Music Education.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010
• Swanwick, K. A Basis for Music Education. Berkshire: NFER-Nelson, 1979
• Mark,Michael L. “MENC: From Tanglewood to the Present” Vision 2020:
The Housewright Symposium on the Future of Music Education, 1999
• http://musiced.nafme.org/files/2012/06/MENCFromTanglewood.pdf